Planes overhead in OL16
Rochdale and Oldham, Greater Manchester. All 1,064 of its postcodes measured (61 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 OL16. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 70% of days
Up to 21
a day
Of its 1,064 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 1,002
- under 10
- 62
On a day it flies both ways, 10% of days
Up to 10
a day
Of its 1,064 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 19
- under 10
- 1,045
On a day it flies east, 20% of days
Under 1
a day, at all 1,064 of its postcodes
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| OL16 1119 postcodes | 119 at 10 to 99 | 119 under 10 | 119 under 10 |
| OL16 2241 postcodes | 179 at 10 to 99 | 241 under 10 | 241 under 10 |
| OL16 3240 postcodes | 240 at 10 to 99 | 240 under 10 | 240 under 10 |
| OL16 4289 postcodes | 289 at 10 to 99 | 19 at 10 to 99 | 289 under 10 |
| OL16 5155 postcodes | 155 at 10 to 99 | 155 under 10 | 155 under 10 |
| OL16 920 postcodes | 20 at 10 to 99 | 20 under 10 | 20 under 10 |
8 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 OL16
OL12 OL11 OL15 OL2 OL10 OL1 M24 OL9
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.