Planes overhead in UB1
Ealing, London. All 591 of its postcodes measured (24 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 Ealing, 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 UB1. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 56% of days
Up to 1
a day
Of its 591 postcodes:
- under 10
- 591
On a day it flies both ways, 15% of days
Up to 50
a day
Of its 591 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 3
- on an edge
- 5
- under 10
- 583
On a day it flies east, 29% of days
Up to 136
a day
Of its 591 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 1
- 10 to 99
- 2
- on an edge
- 8
- under 10
- 580
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| UB1 1173 postcodes | 173 under 10 | 173 under 10 | 173 under 10 |
| UB1 2249 postcodes | 249 under 10 | 249 under 10 | 249 under 10 |
| UB1 3169 postcodes | 169 under 10 | 3 at 10 to 99 | 1 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.
1 of its postcodes have a position ONS estimates, so their figures may be for a spot a few hundred metres away.
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 UB1
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.