Planes overhead in B23
Birmingham, West Midlands. All 824 of its postcodes measured, 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 B23. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (38% of days): up to 9 a day; of its 824 postcodes, 824 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (24% of days): up to 72 a day; of its 824 postcodes, 89 at 10 to 99, 67 on an edge, 668 under 10
- On a day it flies east (38% of days): up to 121 a day; of its 824 postcodes, 89 at 100+, 67 on an edge, 668 under 10
The table counts the postcodes of each sector by how many planes pass over them a day: 100 or more, 10 to 99, or under 10.
| Sector | Flying west38% of days | Both ways24% of days | Flying east38% of days |
|---|---|---|---|
| B23 326 postcodes | 26 under 10 | 26 under 10 | 26 under 10 |
| B23 5306 postcodes | 306 under 10 | 81 at 10 to 9949 on an edge176 under 10 | 81 at 100+49 on an edge176 under 10 |
| B23 6215 postcodes | 215 under 10 | 8 at 10 to 9918 on an edge189 under 10 | 8 at 100+18 on an edge189 under 10 |
| B23 7277 postcodes | 277 under 10 | 277 under 10 | 277 under 10 |
On an edge: the postcode is on the edge of a flight path, where a few metres decide whether a plane counts as overhead, and the fewest and the most within 100 m of it fall in different bands.
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.
Near B23
B24 B44 B73 B76 B20 B35 B19 B36
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.