Planes overhead in E5
Hackney and Waltham Forest, London. All 631 of its postcodes measured (32 PO boxes and other large-user postcodes left out), January to August 2026.
For Heathrow's expansion consultation, open until 22 December 2026: the planes over Hackney, council by council.
From Heathrow
Planes land and take off into the wind, so the weather decides which way Heathrow flies, and that decides how many pass over E5. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 56% of days
Up to 196
a day
Of its 631 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 631
On a day it flies both ways, 15% of days
Up to 117
a day
Of its 631 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 440
- 10 to 99
- 191
On a day it flies east, 29% of days
Up to 2
a day
Of its 631 postcodes:
- under 10
- 631
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 west56% of days | Both ways15% of days | Flying east29% of days |
|---|---|---|---|
| E5 0190 postcodes | 190 at 100+ | 120 at 100+ | 190 under 10 |
| E5 8220 postcodes | 220 at 100+ | 99 at 100+ | 220 under 10 |
| E5 9221 postcodes | 221 at 100+ | 221 at 100+ | 221 under 10 |
Also counted here: London City, at most 2 a day over any of its postcodes.
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 E5
The councils
Where these figures come from
Counted from community flight tracking, checked against the CAA's monthly totals for Heathrow. 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.