Planes overhead in TW4
Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames, London. All 420 of its postcodes measured (8 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 Hounslow and the planes over Richmond upon Thames, 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 TW4. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 56% of days
Up to 319
a day
Of its 420 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 18
- on an edge
- 109
- under 10
- 293
On a day it flies both ways, 15% of days
Up to 414
a day
Of its 420 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 89
- 10 to 99
- 170
- on an edge
- 150
- under 10
- 11
On a day it flies east, 29% of days
Up to 462
a day
Of its 420 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 205
- 10 to 99
- 8
- on an edge
- 143
- under 10
- 64
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| TW4 5161 postcodes | 9 at 100+ | 65 at 100+ | 70 at 100+ |
| TW4 698 postcodes | 6 at 100+ | 21 at 100+ | 46 at 100+ |
| TW4 7161 postcodes | 3 at 100+ | 3 at 100+ | 89 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 TW4
TW3 TW5 TW14 TW13 TW2 TW7 UB2 TW6
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.