Planes overhead in SK5
Stockport and Tameside, Greater Manchester. All 617 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 SK5. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (70% of days): up to 279 a day; of its 617 postcodes, 50 at 100+, 89 at 10 to 99, 79 on an edge, 399 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (10% of days): up to 173 a day; of its 617 postcodes, 50 at 100+, 54 at 10 to 99, 81 on an edge, 432 under 10
- On a day it flies east (20% of days): up to 90 a day; of its 617 postcodes, 135 at 10 to 99, 54 on an edge, 428 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SK5 6277 postcodes | 1 at 100+276 under 10 | 1 at 100+276 under 10 | 1 at 10 to 99276 under 10 |
| SK5 7190 postcodes | 1 at 100+34 at 10 to 9934 on an edge121 under 10 | 1 at 100+11 at 10 to 9939 on an edge139 under 10 | 16 at 10 to 9935 on an edge139 under 10 |
| SK5 8147 postcodes | 45 at 100+55 at 10 to 9945 on an edge2 under 10 | 45 at 100+43 at 10 to 9942 on an edge17 under 10 | 115 at 10 to 9919 on an edge13 under 10 |
| SK5 93 postcodes | 3 at 100+ | 3 at 100+ | 3 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.
1 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 SK5
SK4 M19 SK1 M34 SK3 SK2 M14 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.