Planes overhead in RM3
Havering, London. All 885 of its postcodes measured (38 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 RM3. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 47% of days
Up to 38
a day
Of its 885 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 701
- on an edge
- 55
- under 10
- 129
On a day it flies both ways, 18% of days
Up to 23
a day
Of its 885 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 678
- on an edge
- 50
- under 10
- 157
On a day it flies east, 35% of days
Up to 15
a day
Of its 885 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 9
- under 10
- 876
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| RM3 0242 postcodes | 128 at 10 to 99 | 134 at 10 to 99 | 9 at 10 to 99 |
| RM3 7196 postcodes | 152 at 10 to 99 | 142 at 10 to 99 | 196 under 10 |
| RM3 8230 postcodes | 228 at 10 to 99 | 223 at 10 to 99 | 230 under 10 |
| RM3 9217 postcodes | 193 at 10 to 99 | 179 at 10 to 99 | 217 under 10 |
Also counted here: Heathrow, at most 2 a day over any of its postcodes; Stansted, at most 1 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 67 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 RM3
RM2 RM11 RM1 RM5 RM7 RM14 RM12 RM6
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.