Planes overhead in SW20
Merton and Kingston upon Thames, London. All 535 of its postcodes measured (35 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 Merton, 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 SW20. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 56% of days
Up to 19
a day
Of its 535 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 12
- under 10
- 523
On a day it flies both ways, 15% of days
Up to 76
a day
Of its 535 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 394
- on an edge
- 36
- under 10
- 105
On a day it flies east, 29% of days
Up to 171
a day
Of its 535 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 270
- 10 to 99
- 132
- on an edge
- 43
- under 10
- 90
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SW20 0210 postcodes | 210 under 10 | 169 at 10 to 99 | 127 at 100+ |
| SW20 8192 postcodes | 192 under 10 | 183 at 10 to 99 | 137 at 100+ |
| SW20 9133 postcodes | 12 at 10 to 99 | 42 at 10 to 99 | 6 at 100+ |
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 SW20
KT3 SW19 SM4 KT4 KT2 SM3 KT5 KT1
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.