Planes overhead in SW1V
Westminster, London. All 539 of its postcodes measured (33 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 Westminster, 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 SW1V. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 56% of days
Up to 293
a day
Of its 539 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 58
- 10 to 99
- 362
- on an edge
- 119
On a day it flies both ways, 15% of days
Up to 163
a day
Of its 539 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 58
- 10 to 99
- 362
- on an edge
- 119
On a day it flies east, 29% of days
Up to 4
a day
Of its 539 postcodes:
- under 10
- 539
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SW1V 191 postcodes | 91 at 10 to 99 | 91 at 10 to 99 | 91 under 10 |
| SW1V 2143 postcodes | 140 at 10 to 99 | 140 at 10 to 99 | 143 under 10 |
| SW1V 3155 postcodes | 56 at 100+ | 56 at 100+ | 155 under 10 |
| SW1V 4150 postcodes | 2 at 100+ | 2 at 100+ | 150 under 10 |
Also counted here: London City, 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.
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 SW1V
SW1P SW1W SW1E SW1H SW8 SW1X SW1A SW3
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.