Planes overhead in W9
Westminster, Camden and Brent, London. All 533 of its postcodes measured (45 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 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 W9. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 56% of days
Up to 2
a day
Of its 533 postcodes:
- under 10
- 533
On a day it flies both ways, 15% of days
Up to 24
a day
Of its 533 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 21
- on an edge
- 3
- under 10
- 509
On a day it flies east, 29% of days
Up to 52
a day
Of its 533 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 128
- under 10
- 405
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| W9 1200 postcodes | 200 under 10 | 7 at 10 to 99 | 31 at 10 to 99 |
| W9 2151 postcodes | 151 under 10 | 151 under 10 | 1 at 10 to 99 |
| W9 3182 postcodes | 182 under 10 | 14 at 10 to 99 | 96 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.
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 W9
NW8 W10 NW6 NW3 NW1 W12 W14 NW2
The councils
- Westminster: noise and liveability score
- Camden: noise and liveability score
- Brent: 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.