Planes overhead in SW11
Wandsworth, London. All 1,456 of its postcodes measured (71 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 Wandsworth, council by council.
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 SW11. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 56% of days
Up to 615
a day
Of its 1,456 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 1,305
- 10 to 99
- 27
- on an edge
- 69
- under 10
- 55
On a day it flies both ways, 15% of days
Up to 348
a day
Of its 1,456 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 1,300
- on an edge
- 68
- under 10
- 88
On a day it flies east, 29% of days
Up to 5
a day
Of its 1,456 postcodes:
- under 10
- 1,456
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SW11 1175 postcodes | 168 at 100+ | 168 at 100+ | 175 under 10 |
| SW11 2221 postcodes | 221 at 100+ | 221 at 100+ | 221 under 10 |
| SW11 3264 postcodes | 263 at 100+ | 263 at 100+ | 264 under 10 |
| SW11 4193 postcodes | 193 at 100+ | 193 at 100+ | 193 under 10 |
| SW11 5260 postcodes | 260 at 100+ | 260 at 100+ | 260 under 10 |
| SW11 6172 postcodes | 29 at 100+ | 24 at 100+ | 172 under 10 |
| SW11 784 postcodes | 84 at 100+ | 84 at 100+ | 84 under 10 |
| SW11 887 postcodes | 87 at 100+ | 87 at 100+ | 87 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.
2 of its postcodes have a position ONS estimates, so their figures may be for a spot a few hundred metres away.
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 SW11
SW4 SW10 SW8 SW3 SW12 SW1W SW18 SW1V
The councils
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.