Planes overhead in SW3
Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster, London. All 815 of its postcodes measured (53 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 Kensington and Chelsea, 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 SW3. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 56% of days
Up to 308
a day
Of its 815 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 142
- 10 to 99
- 198
- on an edge
- 135
- under 10
- 340
On a day it flies both ways, 15% of days
Up to 168
a day
Of its 815 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 141
- 10 to 99
- 60
- on an edge
- 136
- under 10
- 478
On a day it flies east, 29% of days
Up to 4
a day
Of its 815 postcodes:
- under 10
- 815
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SW3 171 postcodes | 71 under 10 | 71 under 10 | 71 under 10 |
| SW3 2135 postcodes | 22 at 10 to 99 | 135 under 10 | 135 under 10 |
| SW3 3170 postcodes | 69 at 10 to 99 | 170 under 10 | 170 under 10 |
| SW3 4148 postcodes | 26 at 100+ | 26 at 100+ | 148 under 10 |
| SW3 5182 postcodes | 114 at 100+ | 113 at 100+ | 182 under 10 |
| SW3 6109 postcodes | 2 at 100+ | 2 at 100+ | 109 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.
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 SW3
SW1W SW1X SW10 SW1V SW1E SW11 SW1P SW1H
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.