Planes overhead in WN7
Wigan, Greater Manchester. All 1,177 of its postcodes measured (35 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 WN7. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 70% of days
Up to 3
a day
Of its 1,177 postcodes:
- under 10
- 1,177
On a day it flies both ways, 10% of days
Up to 8
a day
Of its 1,177 postcodes:
- under 10
- 1,177
On a day it flies east, 20% of days
Up to 14
a day
Of its 1,177 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 133
- under 10
- 1,044
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| WN7 1220 postcodes | 220 under 10 | 220 under 10 | 220 under 10 |
| WN7 2247 postcodes | 247 under 10 | 247 under 10 | 247 under 10 |
| WN7 3216 postcodes | 216 under 10 | 216 under 10 | 216 under 10 |
| WN7 4239 postcodes | 239 under 10 | 239 under 10 | 54 at 10 to 99 |
| WN7 5255 postcodes | 255 under 10 | 255 under 10 | 79 at 10 to 99 |
3 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 WN7
M46 M29 WA3 BL5 WN2 M38 M28 WN4
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.