Planes over Merton today
For Heathrow's expansion consultation, open until 22 December 2026.
Whatever your view, these are the figures for Merton now: the planes from Heathrow counted over each of its postcode districts, and the borough's noise, air and flood figures from official data. They are today's flights on today's routes, not those of a third runway. Sky Score takes no side in the consultation.
Heathrow's consultation page: how to respond, and Heathrow's own documents.
Planes from Heathrow, district by district
Planes land and take off into the wind, so the weather decides which way Heathrow flies, and that decides how many pass over each place. Counted over each postcode, January to August 2026.
Each cell gives the most planes over any one postcode of the district on that kind of day, and counts its postcodes in the busiest band reached; the bar splits all of them by how many planes pass over them a day. Each district's own page goes sector by sector.
| District | Flying west56% of days | Both ways15% of days | Flying east29% of days |
|---|---|---|---|
| CR4881 postcodes | up to 96 a day512 at 10 to 99 | up to 70 a day881 at 10 to 99 | up to 151 a day394 at 100+ |
| KT3725 postcodes | up to 18 a day142 at 10 to 99 | up to 58 a day79 at 10 to 99 | up to 135 a day7 at 10 to 99 |
| SM4559 postcodes | up to 59 a day476 at 10 to 99 | up to 37 a day512 at 10 to 99 | up to 65 a day13 at 10 to 99 |
| SW191,572 postcodes | up to 8 a day1,572 under 10 | up to 77 a day1,348 at 10 to 99 | up to 174 a day1,160 at 100+ |
| SW20535 postcodes | up to 19 a day12 at 10 to 99 | up to 76 a day394 at 10 to 99 | up to 171 a day270 at 100+ |
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.
Each district's own page splits it by postcode sector and counts every airport over it.
Noise, air and flood in Merton
- Aircraft noise band
- Low-ModerateEstimated from the distance to the airport and its routes, scaled by the size of its DEFRA noise map
- Road noise
- ModerateDEFRA road Lden, share of postcodes over WHO 53 dB
- Air quality
- ModerateDEFRA background maps against WHO 2021
- Flood risk
- LowEnvironment Agency, Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea, allowing for defences
Merton: every figure we publish, with its score
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.
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.
Aviation noise context: DEFRA strategic noise mapping, Open Government Licence v3.0
Flight routes: UK Aeronautical Information Publication (NATS), derived by Sky Score for the aircraft noise estimate; public but not openly licensed, and not for navigation
Road noise: DEFRA Strategic Noise Mapping Round 4 road Lden, Open Government Licence v3.0
Air quality: DEFRA background pollution maps (PCM), Open Government Licence v3.0
Flood risk: Environment Agency Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea, Open Government Licence v3.0