Planes overhead in B3
Birmingham, West Midlands. All 189 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 B3. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (38% of days): up to 9 a day; of its 189 postcodes, 189 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (24% of days): up to 12 a day; of its 189 postcodes, 92 at 10 to 99, 97 under 10
- On a day it flies east (38% of days): up to 12 a day; of its 189 postcodes, 48 at 10 to 99, 141 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| B3 1101 postcodes | 101 under 10 | 77 at 10 to 9924 under 10 | 29 at 10 to 9972 under 10 |
| B3 246 postcodes | 46 under 10 | 46 under 10 | 46 under 10 |
| B3 342 postcodes | 42 under 10 | 15 at 10 to 9927 under 10 | 19 at 10 to 9923 under 10 |
2 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.
Near B3
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.