Planes overhead in BS39
Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol. 622 of its 624 postcodes measured, the ones in Bath and North East Somerset, January to August 2026.
From Bristol
Planes land and take off into the wind, so the weather decides which way Bristol flies, and that decides how many pass over BS39. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (54% of days): up to 106 a day; of its 622 postcodes, 3 at 100+, 277 at 10 to 99, 4 on an edge, 338 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (21% of days): up to 116 a day; of its 622 postcodes, 3 at 100+, 314 at 10 to 99, 4 on an edge, 301 under 10
- On a day it flies east (25% of days): up to 98 a day; of its 622 postcodes, 151 at 10 to 99, 471 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 west54% of days | Both ways21% of days | Flying east25% of days |
|---|---|---|---|
| BS39 4139 postcodes | 3 at 100+1 at 10 to 994 on an edge131 under 10 | 3 at 100+80 at 10 to 994 on an edge52 under 10 | 93 at 10 to 9946 under 10 |
| BS39 5197 postcodes | 148 at 10 to 9949 under 10 | 152 at 10 to 9945 under 10 | 52 at 10 to 99145 under 10 |
| BS39 6115 postcodes | 83 at 10 to 9932 under 10 | 81 at 10 to 9934 under 10 | 6 at 10 to 99109 under 10 |
| BS39 7171 postcodes | 45 at 10 to 99126 under 10 | 1 at 10 to 99170 under 10 | 171 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.
4 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 BS39
BA3 BS31 BS14 BA2 BS40 BS4 BS41 BS30
The councils
Where these figures come from
Counted from community flight tracking, checked against the CAA's monthly totals for Bristol. 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.