Planes overhead in BL3
Bolton and Bury, Greater Manchester. All 1,362 of its postcodes measured (25 PO boxes and other large-user postcodes left out), January to August 2026.
From Manchester
Planes land and take off into the wind, so the weather decides which way Manchester flies, and that decides how many pass over BL3. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 70% of days
Up to 44
a day
Of its 1,362 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 1,362
On a day it flies both ways, 10% of days
Up to 27
a day
Of its 1,362 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 1,362
On a day it flies east, 20% of days
Up to 13
a day
Of its 1,362 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 129
- under 10
- 1,233
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 west70% of days | Both ways10% of days | Flying east20% of days |
|---|---|---|---|
| BL3 1269 postcodes | 269 at 10 to 99 | 269 at 10 to 99 | 269 under 10 |
| BL3 2208 postcodes | 208 at 10 to 99 | 208 at 10 to 99 | 208 under 10 |
| BL3 3244 postcodes | 244 at 10 to 99 | 244 at 10 to 99 | 244 under 10 |
| BL3 4294 postcodes | 294 at 10 to 99 | 294 at 10 to 99 | 129 at 10 to 99 |
| BL3 5160 postcodes | 160 at 10 to 99 | 160 at 10 to 99 | 160 under 10 |
| BL3 6187 postcodes | 187 at 10 to 99 | 187 at 10 to 99 | 187 under 10 |
3 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 BL3
BL4 BL1 M38 BL2 BL5 M46 M28 BL7
The councils
Where these figures come from
Counted from community flight tracking, checked against the CAA's monthly totals for Manchester. 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.