Planes overhead in SK1
Stockport, Greater Manchester. All 447 of its postcodes measured (55 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 SK1. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 70% of days
Up to 279
a day
Of its 447 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 165
- on an edge
- 94
- under 10
- 188
On a day it flies both ways, 10% of days
Up to 173
a day
Of its 447 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 166
- 10 to 99
- 134
- on an edge
- 126
- under 10
- 21
On a day it flies east, 20% of days
Up to 90
a day
Of its 447 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 409
- on an edge
- 26
- under 10
- 12
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SK1 187 postcodes | 82 at 100+ | 82 at 100+ | 87 at 10 to 99 |
| SK1 263 postcodes | 53 at 100+ | 53 at 100+ | 63 at 10 to 99 |
| SK1 3145 postcodes | 28 at 100+ | 29 at 100+ | 140 at 10 to 99 |
| SK1 4131 postcodes | 2 at 100+ | 2 at 100+ | 98 at 10 to 99 |
| SK1 921 postcodes | 21 on an edge | 21 on an edge | 21 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.
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 SK1
SK3 SK2 SK4 SK5 SK7 M19 SK6 SK8
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.