Planes overhead in M30
Salford, Greater Manchester. All 953 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 M30. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (70% of days): up to 11 a day; of its 953 postcodes, 7 at 10 to 99, 946 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (10% of days): up to 17 a day; of its 953 postcodes, 15 at 10 to 99, 938 under 10
- On a day it flies east (20% of days): up to 22 a day; of its 953 postcodes, 19 at 10 to 99, 934 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| M30 0302 postcodes | 302 under 10 | 302 under 10 | 302 under 10 |
| M30 315 postcodes | 15 under 10 | 15 under 10 | 15 under 10 |
| M30 7213 postcodes | 7 at 10 to 99206 under 10 | 15 at 10 to 99198 under 10 | 19 at 10 to 99194 under 10 |
| M30 8206 postcodes | 206 under 10 | 206 under 10 | 206 under 10 |
| M30 9217 postcodes | 217 under 10 | 217 under 10 | 217 under 10 |
Over 619 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 M30
M17 M41 M28 M32 M16 M44 M38 M25
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.