Planes overhead in BL7
Bolton, Greater Manchester. 291 of its 502 postcodes measured, the ones in Bolton (6 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 BL7. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 70% of days
Up to 5
a day
Of its 291 postcodes:
- under 10
- 291
On a day it flies both ways, 10% of days
Up to 7
a day
Of its 291 postcodes:
- under 10
- 291
On a day it flies east, 20% of days
Up to 10
a day
Of its 291 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 104
- under 10
- 187
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| BL7 05 postcodes | 5 under 10 | 5 under 10 | 5 under 10 |
| BL7 9286 postcodes | 286 under 10 | 286 under 10 | 104 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 BL7
BL1 BL2 BL3 BL8 BL0 BL6 BL4 M26
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.