Planes overhead in B21
Birmingham and Sandwell, West Midlands. All 426 of its postcodes measured (11 PO boxes and other large-user postcodes left out), January to August 2026.
From Birmingham
Planes land and take off into the wind, so the weather decides which way Birmingham flies, and that decides how many pass over B21. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 38% of days
Up to 9
a day
Of its 426 postcodes:
- under 10
- 426
On a day it flies both ways, 24% of days
Up to 14
a day
Of its 426 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 310
- under 10
- 116
On a day it flies east, 38% of days
Up to 21
a day
Of its 426 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 349
- under 10
- 77
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 west38% of days | Both ways24% of days | Flying east38% of days |
|---|---|---|---|
| B21 0164 postcodes | 164 under 10 | 164 at 10 to 99 | 162 at 10 to 99 |
| B21 8109 postcodes | 109 under 10 | 63 at 10 to 99 | 102 at 10 to 99 |
| B21 9153 postcodes | 153 under 10 | 83 at 10 to 99 | 85 at 10 to 99 |
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 B21
The councils
Where these figures come from
Counted from community flight tracking, checked against the CAA's monthly totals for Birmingham. 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.