Planes overhead in M34
Tameside, Greater Manchester. All 1,282 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 M34. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (70% of days): up to 278 a day; of its 1,282 postcodes, 138 at 100+, 159 at 10 to 99, 133 on an edge, 852 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (10% of days): up to 171 a day; of its 1,282 postcodes, 139 at 100+, 177 at 10 to 99, 69 on an edge, 897 under 10
- On a day it flies east (20% of days): up to 86 a day; of its 1,282 postcodes, 320 at 10 to 99, 32 on an edge, 930 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| M34 024 postcodes | 24 under 10 | 24 under 10 | 24 under 10 |
| M34 2233 postcodes | 4 on an edge229 under 10 | 233 under 10 | 233 under 10 |
| M34 3269 postcodes | 4 at 10 to 9919 on an edge246 under 10 | 5 at 10 to 99264 under 10 | 4 at 10 to 99265 under 10 |
| M34 5333 postcodes | 333 under 10 | 333 under 10 | 333 under 10 |
| M34 6161 postcodes | 101 at 10 to 9940 on an edge20 under 10 | 118 at 10 to 9943 under 10 | 54 at 10 to 9932 on an edge75 under 10 |
| M34 7262 postcodes | 138 at 100+54 at 10 to 9970 on an edge | 139 at 100+54 at 10 to 9969 on an edge | 262 at 10 to 99 |
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.
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 M34
SK16 SK5 OL7 SK14 OL6 M19 SK15 SK1
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.