Planes overhead in W10
Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Brent and Hammersmith and Fulham, London. All 665 of its postcodes measured (27 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 and the planes over Westminster, 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 W10. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 56% of days
Up to 2
a day
Of its 665 postcodes:
- under 10
- 665
On a day it flies both ways, 15% of days
Up to 31
a day
Of its 665 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 63
- on an edge
- 39
- under 10
- 563
On a day it flies east, 29% of days
Up to 68
a day
Of its 665 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 305
- under 10
- 360
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| W10 4188 postcodes | 188 under 10 | 63 at 10 to 99 | 188 at 10 to 99 |
| W10 5264 postcodes | 264 under 10 | 264 under 10 | 105 at 10 to 99 |
| W10 6213 postcodes | 213 under 10 | 213 under 10 | 12 at 10 to 99 |
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.
Over 80 of its postcodes, other flying passes too, from airfields, helicopters and airports we cannot check against official counts, so few planes from the airports we count does not mean a quiet sky there.
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 W10
W9 W12 NW6 NW8 NW10 W14 W6 NW2
The councils
- Kensington and Chelsea: noise and liveability score
- Westminster: noise and liveability score
- Brent: noise and liveability score
- Hammersmith and Fulham: noise and liveability score
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.