Planes overhead in B3
Birmingham, West Midlands. All 162 of its postcodes measured (27 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 B3. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 38% of days
Up to 9
a day
Of its 162 postcodes:
- under 10
- 162
On a day it flies both ways, 24% of days
Up to 12
a day
Of its 162 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 87
- under 10
- 75
On a day it flies east, 38% of days
Up to 12
a day
Of its 162 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 42
- under 10
- 120
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| B3 198 postcodes | 98 under 10 | 75 at 10 to 99 | 28 at 10 to 99 |
| B3 233 postcodes | 33 under 10 | 33 under 10 | 33 under 10 |
| B3 331 postcodes | 31 under 10 | 12 at 10 to 99 | 14 at 10 to 99 |
2 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 B3
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.