Manchester Airport noise: flight paths, runways and night flights

Two runways, one wind direction most of the time

Manchester has two parallel runways running from south-west to north-east: Runway 1 (05L/23R), next to the terminals, and Runway 2 (05R/23L), which opened in February 2001. Planes land and take off into the wind, so all the traffic runs one way or the other.

When the wind is from the west, planes land towards the south-west (runway 23), coming in over Stockport, Cheadle and Heald Green, and take off towards Knutsford. That happened on 78% of days over the last year. When the wind is from the east, it all turns round: planes land over Knutsford and take off over Heald Green and Stockport. That happened on 15% of days, and on the other 8% the direction changed during the day. Manchester says 70% to 80% of its departures go west in a typical year, and it prefers the westerly direction whenever it is safe, because it affects fewer people. That preference is part of its air traffic control procedures and of a legally binding planning agreement with local councils.

Easterly days come in spells. In the last year July and December had the most, with more than a quarter of days each, while in September and October we recorded no easterly days at all.

How the second runway is used

Runway 2 only opens when the airport is busy. Planning permission rules it out between 22:00 and 06:00, except when Runway 1 is closed for maintenance or in an emergency. With both runways open, one takes landings and the other take-offs: on westerly days planes land on Runway 1 and take off from Runway 2, and on easterly days the other way round. For summer 2026 the airport expects to run both runways from 06:15 to 20:00 on weekdays, 06:15 to 16:00 on Saturdays, and 06:15 to 09:30 and 13:00 to 20:00 on Sundays. At other times Runway 1 handles everything.

Our recordings show the result. On westerly days 99% of landings used Runway 1. On easterly days landings were split: 53% on Runway 2, which takes the landings in the two-runway hours, and 47% on Runway 1.

Where landing planes fly

Landing planes join the final approach 3,000 to 4,000 ft above the ground and then descend on a straight line, so the same streets hear them at the same height every time. The heights here are above the runway, not above sea level.

Landing from the north-east (westerly days), almost every plane uses one line to Runway 1. It crosses Tameside and Stockport: about 2,200 ft over Bredbury, 1,850 ft over Portwood, 1,500 ft over Shaw Heath, 1,100 ft over Cheadle Heath, 800 ft over Gatley and 450 ft over Heald Green. These streets hear landing planes on about four days in five.

Landing from the south-west (easterly days), planes line up south of Northwich and pass over Lach Dennis, Plumley, Tabley, Knutsford and Mobberley. On the Runway 1 line they are typically about 2,200 ft over Plumley, 1,500 ft over Knutsford and 800 ft over Mobberley. Landings on Runway 2 follow a parallel line a little to the south, over the same villages.

Where take-offs go

Most departing jets follow Preferred Noise Routes until they reach a set height, after which air traffic control can turn them towards their destination.

On westerly days, take-offs pass about 1,550 ft 2 km beyond the runway and 3,700 ft at 8 km. About three-quarters head west past Mere, and most of the rest turn north-west past Little Bollington. On easterly days, planes climb away over Heald Green and Stockport and split three ways: north-east over Davenport in Stockport, south-east towards Poynton, and north over Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Manchester says easterly operations disturb more people, which is why it prefers westerly ones.

Night flights and quiet hours

Manchester operates around the clock. Its night noise policy, updated in March 2026 after a consultation that closed in August 2025, sets these limits:

• Noise budgets: each night flight uses points according to its noise rating (its quota count). Between 23:30 and 05:59 the budget is 7,000 points in the summer season and 3,000 in winter; across the whole night from 23:00 to 06:59, it is 11,498 in summer and 7,788 in winter.
• Noisy aircraft: types rated QC4 or above may not land or take off between 23:00 and 06:59, and QC2 types only on slots they held historically.
• Penalties: airlines are fined when a night departure is louder than 81 dB(A), or 82 dB(A) in the first half hour and the last hour of the night, at monitors 6.5 km from the start of the take-off run.
• Operations: no second runway from 22:00 to 05:59, no visual approaches or early turns after take-off from 23:00 to 06:59, and continuous descent expected on arrival from 22:00 to 05:59.

What the rules do not do is stop night flights. In our recordings, 81 planes landed or took off between 23:00 and 07:00 on an average night, and 125 on the busiest, about one flight in seven of the day's total. Summer nights are much busier than winter ones: over 100 a night from June to September against about 60 from December to March. There are still 11 or 12 flights an hour between midnight and 02:00, and the only real lull is between about 04:00 and 06:00, with just a few flights; on a typical night the longest gap without one is about an hour and a half. From 06:00 traffic jumps to around 30 an hour. If night flights are your main worry, see how to soundproof a bedroom against night flights.

Busy days and quiet days

Manchester handled 203,256 flights in 2025, according to the Civil Aviation Authority, about 557 a day. Our figure of about 580 is a little higher, partly because traffic has grown since. The season makes a big difference: we recorded about 660 flights a day in August against 480 in January. Fridays are the busiest day of the week and Tuesdays the quietest.

For homes under the flight paths, though, the direction matters more than the date. The flight map replays a real westerly or easterly day, so you can see where the planes went.

Changes ahead

Manchester is redesigning its arrival and departure routes under the CAA's airspace change process, as part of the national airspace modernisation programme. It completed the second of seven stages in March 2023; a full public consultation on route options is still to come, and no date has been published. New routes could change which areas are overflown and how often, so if you are buying near the airport, watch for that consultation.

The airport's Noise Action Plan for 2024 to 2028 also commits it to review its sound insulation grants in the light of the new routes, with any changes to be consulted on alongside its next plan, and to consider insulating noise-sensitive buildings inside the 63 dB contour.

Complaints, insulation and help

To complain, use the complaint form linked from WebTrak on Manchester's website, email community.relations@manairport.co.uk or call Freephone 08000 967 967 (with an answerphone outside office hours). The Flight Evaluation Team investigates noise and off-track flights and can also tell you about flight paths if you are thinking of moving nearby. If you are not satisfied with the answer, the Civil Aviation Authority takes aircraft noise complaints once the airport has had the chance to respond. Our guide on how to complain about aircraft noise explains what to include.

To check a flight, Manchester's WebTrak shows recent flights with their type, height and route, with a 20-minute delay. The airport's Community Noise Portal adds dashboards for its noise monitors.

For help with insulation, Manchester offers:

• Sound Insulation Grant Scheme: 80% of the cost of replacement or secondary glazing for the windows and doors of habitable rooms (not bathrooms or kitchens), up to £2,000 a home, plus up to £150 towards loft insulation. Homes qualify if they are inside the scheme boundary, drawn from a noise contour, are of standard brick construction and were built before 1985; more than 3,000 homes are inside it. People receiving a council tax reduction of 80% or more may get the full cost. The scheme is run by Thomasons.
• Vortex Repair Scheme: repairs to roofs damaged by the wake of landing planes, and a new, more resistant roof covering for homes in the areas where this happens most.
• Home relocation assistance: help for owners in the noisiest areas to move somewhere quieter.