Planes overhead in SK4
Stockport and Manchester, Greater Manchester. All 819 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 SK4. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (70% of days): up to 279 a day; of its 819 postcodes, 28 at 100+, 30 at 10 to 99, 94 on an edge, 667 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (10% of days): up to 173 a day; of its 819 postcodes, 28 at 100+, 236 at 10 to 99, 77 on an edge, 478 under 10
- On a day it flies east (20% of days): up to 90 a day; of its 819 postcodes, 342 at 10 to 99, 61 on an edge, 416 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SK4 1134 postcodes | 8 at 100+26 at 10 to 9966 on an edge34 under 10 | 8 at 100+25 at 10 to 9956 on an edge45 under 10 | 47 at 10 to 9942 on an edge45 under 10 |
| SK4 2171 postcodes | 4 at 10 to 9928 on an edge139 under 10 | 37 at 10 to 9921 on an edge113 under 10 | 51 at 10 to 9919 on an edge101 under 10 |
| SK4 3181 postcodes | 181 under 10 | 164 at 10 to 9917 under 10 | 174 at 10 to 997 under 10 |
| SK4 4176 postcodes | 176 under 10 | 10 at 10 to 99166 under 10 | 50 at 10 to 99126 under 10 |
| SK4 5138 postcodes | 1 at 100+137 under 10 | 1 at 100+137 under 10 | 1 at 10 to 99137 under 10 |
| SK4 919 postcodes | 19 at 100+ | 19 at 100+ | 19 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.
13 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 SK4
M19 SK1 SK3 SK5 M20 SK2 M14 SK8
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.