Planes overhead in M22
Manchester and Stockport, Greater Manchester. 1,179 of its 1,180 postcodes measured, the ones in Manchester and Stockport (27 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 M22. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 70% of days
Up to 279
a day
Of its 1,179 postcodes:
- on an edge
- 15
- under 10
- 1,164
On a day it flies both ways, 10% of days
Up to 260
a day
Of its 1,179 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 4
- on an edge
- 74
- under 10
- 1,101
On a day it flies east, 20% of days
Up to 273
a day
Of its 1,179 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 11
- on an edge
- 86
- under 10
- 1,082
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| M22 0111 postcodes | 6 on an edge | 29 on an edge | 1 at 100+ |
| M22 1209 postcodes | 209 under 10 | 1 on an edge | 2 on an edge |
| M22 4292 postcodes | 292 under 10 | 292 under 10 | 3 on an edge |
| M22 5194 postcodes | 9 on an edge | 4 at 100+ | 10 at 100+ |
| M22 8151 postcodes | 151 under 10 | 151 under 10 | 151 under 10 |
| M22 9222 postcodes | 222 under 10 | 222 under 10 | 222 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.
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 M22
M23 M90 SK8 WA15 M20 M21 M33 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.