Planes overhead in SK3
Stockport, Greater Manchester. All 611 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 SK3. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (70% of days): up to 279 a day; of its 611 postcodes, 139 at 100+, 21 at 10 to 99, 189 on an edge, 262 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (10% of days): up to 185 a day; of its 611 postcodes, 139 at 100+, 187 at 10 to 99, 181 on an edge, 104 under 10
- On a day it flies east (20% of days): up to 111 a day; of its 611 postcodes, 22 at 100+, 467 at 10 to 99, 35 on an edge, 87 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SK3 0219 postcodes | 62 at 100+21 at 10 to 99100 on an edge36 under 10 | 62 at 100+90 at 10 to 9967 on an edge | 22 at 100+197 at 10 to 99 |
| SK3 35 postcodes | 5 at 100+ | 5 at 100+ | 5 at 10 to 99 |
| SK3 8212 postcodes | 10 on an edge202 under 10 | 70 at 10 to 9938 on an edge104 under 10 | 90 at 10 to 9935 on an edge87 under 10 |
| SK3 9175 postcodes | 72 at 100+79 on an edge24 under 10 | 72 at 100+27 at 10 to 9976 on an edge | 175 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.
2 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 SK3
SK1 SK4 SK2 SK8 SK7 SK5 M19 M20
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.