Planes overhead in IG3
Redbridge, London. All 478 of its postcodes measured (13 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 Redbridge, 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 IG3. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 47% of days
Up to 7
a day
Of its 478 postcodes:
- under 10
- 478
On a day it flies both ways, 18% of days
Up to 9
a day
Of its 478 postcodes:
- under 10
- 478
On a day it flies east, 35% of days
Up to 17
a day
Of its 478 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 67
- on an edge
- 38
- under 10
- 373
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| IG3 8231 postcodes | 231 under 10 | 231 under 10 | 3 at 10 to 99 |
| IG3 9247 postcodes | 247 under 10 | 247 under 10 | 64 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 IG3. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 56% of days
Up to 11
a day
Of its 478 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 27
- under 10
- 451
On a day it flies both ways, 15% of days
Up to 5
a day
Of its 478 postcodes:
- under 10
- 478
On a day it flies east, 29% of days
Under 1
a day, at all 478 of its postcodes
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| IG3 8231 postcodes | 231 under 10 | 231 under 10 | 231 under 10 |
| IG3 9247 postcodes | 27 at 10 to 99 | 247 under 10 | 247 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 IG3
IG1 IG2 RM6 IG11 RM9 E12 IG6 IG4
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.