Planes overhead in WN4
Wigan and St Helens, Greater Manchester. All 595 of its postcodes measured (9 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 WN4. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 70% of days
Up to 2
a day
Of its 595 postcodes:
- under 10
- 595
On a day it flies both ways, 10% of days
Up to 12
a day
Of its 595 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 352
- under 10
- 243
On a day it flies east, 20% of days
Up to 22
a day
Of its 595 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 595
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| WN4 0192 postcodes | 192 under 10 | 3 at 10 to 99 | 192 at 10 to 99 |
| WN4 8177 postcodes | 177 under 10 | 169 at 10 to 99 | 177 at 10 to 99 |
| WN4 9226 postcodes | 226 under 10 | 180 at 10 to 99 | 226 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.
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 WN4
WN3 WA12 WA3 WN5 WA11 WN2 WN1 WA9
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.