Planes overhead in SW6
Hammersmith and Fulham, London. All 1,424 of its postcodes measured (82 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 Hammersmith and Fulham, 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 SW6. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 56% of days
Up to 619
a day
Of its 1,424 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 1,349
- on an edge
- 72
- under 10
- 3
On a day it flies both ways, 15% of days
Up to 350
a day
Of its 1,424 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 1,349
- on an edge
- 66
- under 10
- 9
On a day it flies east, 29% of days
Up to 5
a day
Of its 1,424 postcodes:
- under 10
- 1,424
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SW6 1192 postcodes | 123 at 100+ | 123 at 100+ | 192 under 10 |
| SW6 2311 postcodes | 311 at 100+ | 311 at 100+ | 311 under 10 |
| SW6 3188 postcodes | 188 at 100+ | 188 at 100+ | 188 under 10 |
| SW6 4186 postcodes | 186 at 100+ | 186 at 100+ | 186 under 10 |
| SW6 5138 postcodes | 138 at 100+ | 138 at 100+ | 138 under 10 |
| SW6 6197 postcodes | 197 at 100+ | 197 at 100+ | 197 under 10 |
| SW6 7212 postcodes | 206 at 100+ | 206 at 100+ | 212 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 SW6
SW10 W14 W6 SW11 SW3 SW18 SW13 SW15
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.