Planes overhead in W5
Ealing and Hounslow, London. All 941 of its postcodes measured (66 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 W5. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 56% of days
Up to 2
a day
Of its 941 postcodes:
- under 10
- 941
On a day it flies both ways, 15% of days
Up to 81
a day
Of its 941 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 589
- on an edge
- 93
- under 10
- 259
On a day it flies east, 29% of days
Up to 188
a day
Of its 941 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 518
- 10 to 99
- 32
- on an edge
- 155
- under 10
- 236
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| W5 1188 postcodes | 188 under 10 | 185 at 10 to 99 | 166 at 100+ |
| W5 2200 postcodes | 200 under 10 | 200 at 10 to 99 | 196 at 100+ |
| W5 3192 postcodes | 192 under 10 | 108 at 10 to 99 | 86 at 100+ |
| W5 4214 postcodes | 214 under 10 | 16 on an edge | 2 at 10 to 99 |
| W5 5123 postcodes | 123 under 10 | 72 at 10 to 99 | 46 at 100+ |
| W5 924 postcodes | 24 under 10 | 24 at 10 to 99 | 24 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 W5
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.