Planes overhead in DA17
Bexley, London. All 336 of its postcodes measured (6 PO boxes and other large-user postcodes left out), January to August 2026.
From London City
Planes land and take off into the wind, so the weather decides which way London City flies, and that decides how many pass over DA17. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 47% of days
Up to 63
a day
Of its 336 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 9
- on an edge
- 13
- under 10
- 314
On a day it flies both ways, 18% of days
Up to 39
a day
Of its 336 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 9
- on an edge
- 13
- under 10
- 314
On a day it flies east, 35% of days
Up to 1
a day
Of its 336 postcodes:
- under 10
- 336
Each sector's bar splits its postcodes by how many planes pass over them a day; the figure above it counts those in the busiest band the sector reaches. The list above gives the whole district's counts.
| Sector | Flying west47% of days | Both ways18% of days | Flying east35% of days |
|---|---|---|---|
| DA17 5208 postcodes | 208 under 10 | 208 under 10 | 208 under 10 |
| DA17 6128 postcodes | 9 at 10 to 99 | 9 at 10 to 99 | 128 under 10 |
Also counted here: Heathrow, at most 6 a day over any of its postcodes.
On an edge: the postcode is on the edge of a flight path, where a few metres decide whether a plane counts as overhead, and the fewest and the most within 100 m of it fall in different bands.
What counts as overhead
Overhead means more than halfway up the sky (48.5 degrees or more) and below 7,000 ft, the CAA's definition of an overflight (CAP 1498). A day counts as one way when 80% of its flights used that way. PO boxes and other postcodes for organisations that receive a lot of post are left out: they sit at a delivery office or a business, not at homes.
Near DA17
DA18 SE2 SE28 DA16 DA5 RM13 SE18 RM9
The councils
Where these figures come from
Counted from community flight tracking, checked against the CAA's monthly totals for London City. Flight tracks: adsb.lol (ODbL 1.0); Weather at each airport: Iowa Environmental Mesonet; Ground heights: Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right; Postcode positions: ONS National Statistics Postcode Lookup (OGL). Licence: Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0.