Planes overhead in WA12
St Helens and Wigan, Merseyside. 622 of its 623 postcodes measured, the ones in St Helens and Wigan (22 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 WA12. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 70% of days
Up to 2
a day
Of its 622 postcodes:
- under 10
- 622
On a day it flies both ways, 10% of days
Up to 11
a day
Of its 622 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 529
- under 10
- 93
On a day it flies east, 20% of days
Up to 22
a day
Of its 622 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 622
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| WA12 0122 postcodes | 122 under 10 | 99 at 10 to 99 | 122 at 10 to 99 |
| WA12 8195 postcodes | 195 under 10 | 140 at 10 to 99 | 195 at 10 to 99 |
| WA12 9305 postcodes | 305 under 10 | 290 at 10 to 99 | 305 at 10 to 99 |
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 WA12
WA3 WN4 WA9 WA11 WA10 WN3 WN7 WN5
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.