Planes overhead in RM1
Havering, London. All 469 of its postcodes measured (48 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 RM1. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 47% of days
Up to 38
a day
Of its 469 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 89
- on an edge
- 16
- under 10
- 364
On a day it flies both ways, 18% of days
Up to 22
a day
Of its 469 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 105
- on an edge
- 17
- under 10
- 347
On a day it flies east, 35% of days
Up to 37
a day
Of its 469 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 17
- on an edge
- 38
- under 10
- 414
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| RM1 179 postcodes | 79 under 10 | 79 under 10 | 79 under 10 |
| RM1 2117 postcodes | 117 under 10 | 22 at 10 to 99 | 17 at 10 to 99 |
| RM1 368 postcodes | 68 under 10 | 68 under 10 | 68 under 10 |
| RM1 4205 postcodes | 89 at 10 to 99 | 83 at 10 to 99 | 205 under 10 |
Also counted here: Heathrow, at most 3 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.
Over 4 of its postcodes, other flying passes too, from airfields, helicopters and airports we cannot check against official counts, so few planes from the airports we count does not mean a quiet sky there.
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 RM1
RM7 RM2 RM5 RM11 RM3 RM6 RM12 RM10
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.