Planes overhead in LS16
Leeds, West Yorkshire. All 1,000 of its postcodes measured (29 PO boxes and other large-user postcodes left out), January to August 2026.
From Leeds Bradford
Planes land and take off into the wind, so the weather decides which way Leeds Bradford flies, and that decides how many pass over LS16. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 47% of days
Up to 56
a day
Of its 1,000 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 21
- on an edge
- 70
- under 10
- 909
On a day it flies both ways, 26% of days
Up to 52
a day
Of its 1,000 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 98
- on an edge
- 75
- under 10
- 827
On a day it flies east, 27% of days
Up to 46
a day
Of its 1,000 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 120
- on an edge
- 86
- under 10
- 794
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 west47% of days | Both ways26% of days | Flying east27% of days |
|---|---|---|---|
| LS16 5184 postcodes | 20 at 10 to 99 | 55 at 10 to 99 | 68 at 10 to 99 |
| LS16 6247 postcodes | 1 at 10 to 99 | 38 at 10 to 99 | 45 at 10 to 99 |
| LS16 7244 postcodes | 5 on an edge | 5 at 10 to 99 | 7 at 10 to 99 |
| LS16 8182 postcodes | 182 under 10 | 182 under 10 | 182 under 10 |
| LS16 9143 postcodes | 143 under 10 | 143 under 10 | 143 under 10 |
On an edge: the postcode is on the edge of a flight path, where a few metres decide whether a plane counts as overhead, and the fewest and the most within 100 m of it fall in different bands.
1 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 LS16
LS18 LS5 LS6 LS4 LS13 LS19 LS7 LS3
The councils
Where these figures come from
Counted from community flight tracking, checked against the CAA's monthly totals for Leeds Bradford. 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.