Planes overhead in BS4
City of Bristol, Bristol. All 1,069 of its postcodes measured (42 PO boxes and other large-user postcodes left out), January to August 2026.
From Bristol
Planes land and take off into the wind, so the weather decides which way Bristol flies, and that decides how many pass over BS4. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 54% of days
Up to 3
a day
Of its 1,069 postcodes:
- under 10
- 1,069
On a day it flies both ways, 21% of days
Up to 13
a day
Of its 1,069 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 4
- under 10
- 1,065
On a day it flies east, 25% of days
Up to 24
a day
Of its 1,069 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 55
- under 10
- 1,014
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 west54% of days | Both ways21% of days | Flying east25% of days |
|---|---|---|---|
| BS4 1282 postcodes | 282 under 10 | 282 under 10 | 282 under 10 |
| BS4 2211 postcodes | 211 under 10 | 211 under 10 | 211 under 10 |
| BS4 3185 postcodes | 185 under 10 | 185 under 10 | 185 under 10 |
| BS4 4270 postcodes | 270 under 10 | 270 under 10 | 21 at 10 to 99 |
| BS4 5121 postcodes | 121 under 10 | 4 at 10 to 99 | 34 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 BS4
BS14 BS5 BS15 BS8 BS31 BS7 BS41 BS30
The councils
Where these figures come from
Counted from community flight tracking, checked against the CAA's monthly totals for Bristol. 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.