Planes overhead in M17
Trafford, Greater Manchester. All 128 of its postcodes measured (33 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 M17. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 70% of days
Up to 8
a day
Of its 128 postcodes:
- under 10
- 128
On a day it flies both ways, 10% of days
Up to 13
a day
Of its 128 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 1
- under 10
- 127
On a day it flies east, 20% of days
Up to 17
a day
Of its 128 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 1
- under 10
- 127
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| M17 1112 postcodes | 112 under 10 | 112 under 10 | 112 under 10 |
| M17 816 postcodes | 16 under 10 | 1 at 10 to 99 | 1 at 10 to 99 |
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 M17
M32 M30 M41 M16 M21 M33 M14 M25
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.