Antonov An-24

Updated: October 2026 – A gravel runway somewhere in Siberia, minus 30 degrees, no ground equipment for miles: the Antonov An-24 was built for exactly such conditions. For decades, the twin-engine turboprop was the backbone of regional service in the Soviet Union and its partner states, flying for Aeroflot as well as for Interflug, Cubana or Air Koryo. Today it has become rare, but has not yet disappeared. Here you will learn where it comes from, how to recognize it, how to tell it apart from its many relatives and where you still have a chance of a sighting today.

What is the Antonov An-24?

The An-24 is a twin-engine turboprop airliner for short and regional routes. It was developed at the Antonov design bureau in Kyiv, which you know mainly for giants like the An-124. NATO gave the type the reporting name “Coke.”

The impulse came from Aeroflot in the late 1950s: they wanted an aircraft with a good 30 seats that could fly from small, poorly surfaced airfields in changeable weather. The goal was to replace the aging piston-engine types, above all the Li-2 – a copy of the DC-3 – as well as the Ilyushin Il-12 and Il-14. Propulsion comes from two Ivchenko AI-24 turboprop engines.

The first flight took place in October 1959 in Kyiv; sources give October 20 or October 29. Compared with the original specification, the seat count grew significantly, and series production started in the early 1960s. Aeroflot put the type into scheduled service from 1962/63, with the first passenger route running from Kyiv to Kherson.

The An-24 was built at three factories: in Kyiv, in Irkutsk and in Ulan-Ude. The Kyiv factory supplied the lion’s share. By the time the series ended in the second half of the 1970s, around 1,360 examples had been built according to common reference works. It is often stated that in its best years the An-24 handled about a third of all passenger movements in the Soviet Union – an indication of how central the type was to the huge route network. The overall context is provided by the article Soviet airliners, and more on the manufacturer is on the page about Antonov.

Tech: rugged rather than refined

The An-24 is a good 23.5 meters long and has a wingspan of 29.2 meters. With a maximum takeoff weight of 21 tons, it is in the same size range as an ATR 42 or a Fokker 50, but looks boxier and more massive. The two AI-24A turbines deliver around 1,900 kW each and drive four-blade propellers. As a rule, about 50 passengers fit, between 44 and 52 depending on version and operator. Cruise speed is around 450 km/h, and with full tanks it manages up to about 2,400 kilometers.

What defines the An-24 is less the numbers than the design for rough conditions:

• High wing: Engines and propellers sit far above the ground and are thus better protected from stones and dirt from unpaved runways.
• Strong landing gear: The main gear retracts into the engine nacelles and is designed for grass, gravel and snow runways.
• Little ground equipment needed: The type was designed to work even where there are no stairs, tugs or ground power units.
• Plenty of power relative to weight: That helps on short runways, in heat and at high altitude.

The most important variants

Over the decades, a whole series of versions was built. For spotters, these are the most relevant:

Variant	Special feature
An-24 / An-24A	early production versions with around 44 seats
An-24B	improved passenger version with more seats and larger tanks
An-24V	export version, later with twin ventral fins
An-24RV	with an additional RU-19A-300 jet engine in the right nacelle
An-24T	military transport version with a cargo hatch in the rear fuselage floor
An-24RT	transport version with auxiliary engine

The An-24RV is the version you are most likely to meet. The small jet engine at the rear of the right engine nacelle provides additional thrust when needed, for example on takeoffs from hot or high-altitude airfields, and works as an auxiliary power unit on the ground. From behind, you see a second exhaust opening on this nacelle – the surest feature to tell an RV from a plain An-24B.

The An-24T looks like the passenger version at first glance, but has a loading hatch in the fuselage floor under the tail. A proper cargo ramp only came with the further development, the An-26.

A big family

Hardly any regional aircraft has spawned as many offshoots as the An-24. If you know the family, you also identify the relatives faster.

• An-26: Cargo version with an upswept tail and cargo ramp, plus an observation window on the side of the fuselage. Today it is more common in many places than the An-24.
• An-30: Survey and aerial photography aircraft with a glazed nose and a raised cockpit.
• An-32: Further development of the An-26 for hot and high-altitude regions. The engines sit conspicuously high above the wing, and the propellers are larger.
• Xian Y-7 and MA60: In China, the Y-7 was first built on the basis of the An-24, and later the MA60 with Western engines.
• An-140: The civil successor from Antonov, though a largely new design – also a high-wing aircraft with two turboprop engines.

In Russia, the Ilyushin Il-114-300 is now intended as the replacement for the An-24. Until the fleets are swapped, the existing aircraft remain in service thanks to extended service lives.

How to identify the An-24

There are many twin-engine high-wing propeller aircraft. Three looks are usually enough, though, to identify the An-24 reliably.

In the end, registration and type code confirm your identification. How type codes are structured is explained in the article ICAO type codes explained, and you can find the country prefixes under Country prefixes of aircraft.

Feature	An-24	An-26	ATR 42	Dash 8-100
Tail	round, without a ramp	upswept, ramp	round, T-tail	round, T-tail
Empennage	conventional	conventional	T-tail	T-tail
Main landing gear	in the nacelles	in the nacelles	fuselage fairing	in the nacelles
Use today	rare	more common, mostly cargo	widespread	widespread

The empennage is a particularly quick criterion: the An-24 has a conventional tail with the horizontal stabilizer attached low on the fuselage, while the ATR and Dash 8 carry T-tails. For a detailed overview of the common propeller aircraft, see the article Telling turboprops apart.

The An-24 in East Germany and the Eastern Bloc

The An-24 also made history in Germany. Interflug switched its domestic network to the type from 1967. It did not last long: in 1980, the East German airline’s domestic service ended – the An-24 was considered uneconomical, and passenger numbers were also falling because of cars and fast rail connections. More on the history of the state airline is told in the article Interflug.

Beyond that, the An-24 flew with many airlines of the Warsaw Pact and friendly states. The Cuban Cubana de Aviación used it domestically for a long time, and the North Korean Air Koryo used it for domestic connections; which aircraft are still active there today is hard to verify from outside. At Aeroflot itself, the An-24 was omnipresent for decades before the regional directorates split into numerous independent airlines after 1991 – many of them took over the An-24 and in part still fly it today.

Who flies the An-24 today?

Of the around 1,360 aircraft built, only a small part is still active. According to common fleet overviews, around 90 An-24s were in service worldwide in 2023, mainly in Russia, other CIS states and Africa. In Russia, according to fleet lists of recent years, users include above all regional airlines in Siberia and the Far East, such as Polar Airlines, IrAero, Angara Airlines or Yakutia. There the type is often one of the few that can reach certain runways at all.

In Russia, the permitted service life of the aircraft was extended; according to Russian statements, they can fly into the 2030s. At the same time, maintenance costs are rising and spare parts are scarce. The Il-114-300 is planned as the Russian replacement.

Where you can still catch an An-24

For spotters in Central Europe, the An-24 is a true rarity today. Russian aircraft have not been allowed to enter EU airspace since 2022, and Belarusian airlines have been barred since 2021. Ukrainian airspace has been closed to civil scheduled service since 2022, so Ukrainian An-24s drop out as visitors as well. An An-24 in scheduled service at a German airport is thus practically ruled out.

You have realistic chances while traveling:

Region	Chance of a sighting	Why
Russia, Siberia and the Far East	high	largest remaining fleets at regional airlines
Central Asia and other CIS states	medium	individual operators with remaining stock
Parts of Africa	low to medium	charter and regional operators, often changing
EU and Western Europe	very low	flight bans and hardly any active operators

Important: In Russia and Belarus, strict rules apply to photography at airports. What you need to know before taking out your camera there is explained in the article Photography bans in Russia and Belarus. If you want not just to see the type but to experience it, you will find inspiration in the article Flying rare aircraft types as a passenger.

Photo tips for the An-24

The An-24 is a subject with character: weathered liveries, sooty nacelles and often a backdrop of snow, steppe or tundra.

Which shutter speeds work for propellers is explained in the article Photographing propellers. How to gauge the rarity of your sighting is covered in Spotting rare aircraft.

Common mix-ups and how to rule them out

Conclusion

The An-24 is one of the most important regional aircraft in aviation history – not because of spectacular technology, but because it flew where nothing else flew. A high wing, long nacelles with landing gear and a rampless tail make it unmistakable as soon as you can tell it from the An-26. In Europe it has practically disappeared today, but in Siberia, Central Asia and parts of Africa it still works – and every sighting becomes more valuable with the years.