Planes overhead in WS5
Walsall and Sandwell, West Midlands. All 371 of its postcodes measured (6 PO boxes and other large-user postcodes left out), January to August 2026.
From Birmingham
Planes land and take off into the wind, so the weather decides which way Birmingham flies, and that decides how many pass over WS5. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 38% of days
Up to 1
a day
Of its 371 postcodes:
- under 10
- 371
On a day it flies both ways, 24% of days
Up to 10
a day
Of its 371 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 2
- under 10
- 369
On a day it flies east, 38% of days
Up to 13
a day
Of its 371 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 52
- under 10
- 319
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 west38% of days | Both ways24% of days | Flying east38% of days |
|---|---|---|---|
| WS5 3179 postcodes | 179 under 10 | 1 at 10 to 99 | 23 at 10 to 99 |
| WS5 4192 postcodes | 192 under 10 | 1 at 10 to 99 | 29 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 WS5
WS1 B71 WS2 WS10 WS4 WS9 B44 B70
The councils
Where these figures come from
Counted from community flight tracking, checked against the CAA's monthly totals for Birmingham. 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.