Planes overhead in M30
Salford, Greater Manchester. All 921 of its postcodes measured (32 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 M30. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 70% of days
Up to 11
a day
Of its 921 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 7
- under 10
- 914
On a day it flies both ways, 10% of days
Up to 17
a day
Of its 921 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 15
- under 10
- 906
On a day it flies east, 20% of days
Up to 22
a day
Of its 921 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 19
- under 10
- 902
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| M30 0294 postcodes | 294 under 10 | 294 under 10 | 294 under 10 |
| M30 7212 postcodes | 7 at 10 to 99 | 15 at 10 to 99 | 19 at 10 to 99 |
| M30 8202 postcodes | 202 under 10 | 202 under 10 | 202 under 10 |
| M30 9213 postcodes | 213 under 10 | 213 under 10 | 213 under 10 |
Over 612 of its postcodes, other flying passes too, from airfields, helicopters and airports we cannot check against official counts, so few planes from the airports we count does not mean a quiet sky there.
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 M30
M17 M41 M28 M32 M44 M16 M38 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.