Planes overhead in M20
Manchester, Greater Manchester. All 1,123 of its postcodes measured (22 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 M20. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 70% of days
Up to 5
a day
Of its 1,123 postcodes:
- under 10
- 1,123
On a day it flies both ways, 10% of days
Up to 36
a day
Of its 1,123 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 1,073
- under 10
- 50
On a day it flies east, 20% of days
Up to 69
a day
Of its 1,123 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 1,093
- on an edge
- 1
- under 10
- 29
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| M20 1185 postcodes | 185 under 10 | 185 at 10 to 99 | 185 at 10 to 99 |
| M20 2288 postcodes | 288 under 10 | 284 at 10 to 99 | 288 at 10 to 99 |
| M20 3152 postcodes | 152 under 10 | 152 at 10 to 99 | 152 at 10 to 99 |
| M20 4180 postcodes | 180 under 10 | 180 at 10 to 99 | 180 at 10 to 99 |
| M20 598 postcodes | 98 under 10 | 52 at 10 to 99 | 68 at 10 to 99 |
| M20 6220 postcodes | 220 under 10 | 220 at 10 to 99 | 220 at 10 to 99 |
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 M20
M14 M19 M21 SK4 M16 M23 M22 SK3
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.