Planes overhead in WA9
St Helens, Merseyside. 1,310 of its 1,312 postcodes measured, the ones in St Helens, 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 WA9. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (70% of days): up to 1 a day; of its 1,310 postcodes, 1,310 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (10% of days): up to 10 a day; of its 1,310 postcodes, 52 at 10 to 99, 1,258 under 10
- On a day it flies east (20% of days): up to 21 a day; of its 1,310 postcodes, 1,303 at 10 to 99, 7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| WA9 1186 postcodes | 186 under 10 | 186 under 10 | 186 at 10 to 99 |
| WA9 2144 postcodes | 144 under 10 | 47 at 10 to 9997 under 10 | 144 at 10 to 99 |
| WA9 3317 postcodes | 317 under 10 | 317 under 10 | 317 at 10 to 99 |
| WA9 4344 postcodes | 344 under 10 | 5 at 10 to 99339 under 10 | 344 at 10 to 99 |
| WA9 5319 postcodes | 319 under 10 | 319 under 10 | 312 at 10 to 997 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 WA9
WA10 WA11 L35 WA12 WN4 WN5 WN3 WN2
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.