Planes overhead in WA10
St Helens and Knowsley, Merseyside. All 1,197 of its postcodes measured (77 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 WA10. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 70% of days
Up to 2
a day
Of its 1,197 postcodes:
- under 10
- 1,197
On a day it flies both ways, 10% of days
Up to 6
a day
Of its 1,197 postcodes:
- under 10
- 1,197
On a day it flies east, 20% of days
Up to 13
a day
Of its 1,197 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 411
- under 10
- 786
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| WA10 1130 postcodes | 130 under 10 | 130 under 10 | 130 at 10 to 99 |
| WA10 2188 postcodes | 188 under 10 | 188 under 10 | 128 at 10 to 99 |
| WA10 3239 postcodes | 239 under 10 | 239 under 10 | 125 at 10 to 99 |
| WA10 4198 postcodes | 198 under 10 | 198 under 10 | 3 at 10 to 99 |
| WA10 5194 postcodes | 194 under 10 | 194 under 10 | 194 under 10 |
| WA10 6223 postcodes | 223 under 10 | 223 under 10 | 223 under 10 |
| WA10 925 postcodes | 25 under 10 | 25 under 10 | 25 at 10 to 99 |
1 of its postcodes have a position ONS estimates, so their figures may be for a spot a few hundred metres away.
Over 126 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 WA10
WA9 WA11 L35 WA12 WN4 WN5 WN3 WA3
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.