Planes overhead in SW15
Wandsworth, Kingston upon Thames and Richmond upon Thames, London. All 1,167 of its postcodes measured (58 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 SW15. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 56% of days
Up to 457
a day
Of its 1,167 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 458
- on an edge
- 144
- under 10
- 565
On a day it flies both ways, 15% of days
Up to 249
a day
Of its 1,167 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 455
- 10 to 99
- 64
- on an edge
- 144
- under 10
- 504
On a day it flies east, 29% of days
Up to 175
a day
Of its 1,167 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 43
- 10 to 99
- 23
- on an edge
- 2
- under 10
- 1,099
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SW15 1184 postcodes | 179 at 100+ | 177 at 100+ | 184 under 10 |
| SW15 2212 postcodes | 90 at 100+ | 90 at 100+ | 212 under 10 |
| SW15 3200 postcodes | 200 under 10 | 64 at 10 to 99 | 43 at 100+ |
| SW15 4153 postcodes | 153 under 10 | 153 under 10 | 153 under 10 |
| SW15 5208 postcodes | 76 at 100+ | 76 at 100+ | 208 under 10 |
| SW15 6210 postcodes | 113 at 100+ | 112 at 100+ | 210 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.
Over 12 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 SW15
SW13 SW18 SW14 SW6 W6 SW19 SW10 W14
The councils
- Wandsworth: noise and liveability score
- Kingston upon Thames: noise and liveability score
- Richmond upon Thames: noise and liveability score
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.