Planes overhead in M29
Wigan and Salford, Greater Manchester. All 568 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 M29. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (70% of days): up to 8 a day; of its 568 postcodes, 568 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (10% of days): up to 11 a day; of its 568 postcodes, 3 at 10 to 99, 565 under 10
- On a day it flies east (20% of days): up to 11 a day; of its 568 postcodes, 4 at 10 to 99, 564 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| M29 24 postcodes | 4 under 10 | 4 under 10 | 4 under 10 |
| M29 7288 postcodes | 288 under 10 | 3 at 10 to 99285 under 10 | 4 at 10 to 99284 under 10 |
| M29 8276 postcodes | 276 under 10 | 276 under 10 | 276 under 10 |
Over 140 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 M29
M46 M38 M28 WN7 BL4 BL5 BL3 M30
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.