Planes overhead in BL4
Bolton, Greater Manchester. All 850 of its postcodes measured, 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 BL4. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (70% of days): up to 43 a day; of its 850 postcodes, 810 at 10 to 99, 40 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (10% of days): up to 23 a day; of its 850 postcodes, 678 at 10 to 99, 172 under 10
- On a day it flies east (20% of days): up to 4 a day; of its 850 postcodes, 850 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 west70% of days | Both ways10% of days | Flying east20% of days |
|---|---|---|---|
| BL4 0200 postcodes | 200 at 10 to 99 | 200 at 10 to 99 | 200 under 10 |
| BL4 44 postcodes | 4 under 10 | 4 under 10 | 4 under 10 |
| BL4 7213 postcodes | 213 at 10 to 99 | 212 at 10 to 991 under 10 | 213 under 10 |
| BL4 8206 postcodes | 170 at 10 to 9936 under 10 | 79 at 10 to 99127 under 10 | 206 under 10 |
| BL4 9227 postcodes | 227 at 10 to 99 | 187 at 10 to 9940 under 10 | 227 under 10 |
Over 4 of its postcodes, other flying passes too, from airfields, helicopters and airports we cannot check against official counts, so few planes from the airports we count does not mean a quiet sky there.
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 BL4
M38 BL3 M28 BL2 M26 M29 BL1 M46
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.