Planes overhead in EC3M

City of London, London. All 67 of its postcodes measured (12 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 City of London, council by council.

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 EC3M. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:

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.

Planes overhead from London City in EC3M, by postcode sector and the way London City flies
SectorFlying west47% of daysBoth ways18% of daysFlying east35% of days
EC3M 114 postcodes14 under 1014 at 10 to 9914 at 10 to 99
EC3M 21 postcode1 under 101 on an edge1 on an edge
EC3M 35 postcodes5 under 105 at 10 to 995 at 10 to 99
EC3M 47 postcodes7 under 107 at 10 to 997 at 10 to 99
EC3M 515 postcodes15 under 1014 at 10 to 9914 at 10 to 99
EC3M 65 postcodes5 under 105 at 10 to 995 at 10 to 99
EC3M 714 postcodes14 under 1013 at 10 to 9913 at 10 to 99
EC3M 86 postcodes6 under 106 at 10 to 996 at 10 to 99

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 EC3M. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:

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.

Planes overhead from Heathrow in EC3M, by postcode sector and the way Heathrow flies
SectorFlying west56% of daysBoth ways15% of daysFlying east29% of days
EC3M 114 postcodes14 at 10 to 9914 at 10 to 9914 under 10
EC3M 21 postcode1 at 10 to 991 at 10 to 991 under 10
EC3M 35 postcodes5 at 10 to 995 at 10 to 995 under 10
EC3M 47 postcodes7 at 10 to 997 at 10 to 997 under 10
EC3M 515 postcodes15 at 10 to 9915 at 10 to 9915 under 10
EC3M 65 postcodes5 at 10 to 995 at 10 to 995 under 10
EC3M 714 postcodes14 at 10 to 9914 at 10 to 9914 under 10
EC3M 86 postcodes6 at 10 to 996 at 10 to 996 under 10

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 EC3M

EC3R EC3V EC3A EC3N EC2N EC4R EC4N EC2R

The councils

Where these figures come from

Counted from community flight tracking, checked against the CAA's monthly totals for London City and 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.

How the planes are counted