De Havilland Canada Dash 8-300 (Q300)

Updated: October 2026 – High wing, T-tail, four propeller blades and a fuselage that looks neither stubby nor extremely long: that is very likely a De Havilland Canada Dash 8-300, often also called the Q300. It is the middle size of the Dash 8 family and was the workhorse of many regional airlines for decades, from Canada to Norway to New Zealand. In central Europe it has almost disappeared. Here you learn how to identify it with confidence, how to tell it from its siblings and the ATR 42, and where it still flies today.

What is the Dash 8-300?

The Dash 8 was created at De Havilland Canada in the early 1980s as a modern regional turboprop. The first version, the Dash 8-100, offered just under forty seats and first flew in 1983. It quickly became clear that many airlines wanted more capacity without jumping straight to a much larger aircraft. The answer was the Series 300: a fuselage stretched by about 3.4 meters, more powerful engines and a larger wingspan.

The Dash 8-300 took off for the first time on May 15, 1987 and entered scheduled service in 1989. It is powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW123 engines, which, depending on the sub-variant, deliver between about 2,380 and 2,500 shaft horsepower and turn four-blade propellers. In the cabin, passengers sit in a 2+2 layout with a center aisle; typical configurations have 50 to 56 seats. That puts the -300 in the same league as the ATR 42, the Saab 340 with somewhat fewer and the Fokker 50 with a similar number of seats.

The manufacturer’s history is eventful: when the -300 was developed and first flew, De Havilland Canada belonged to Boeing. In 1992 Bombardier took over the company and continued the Dash 8; from 2019 the program belonged to Longview Aviation Capital, which again uses the name De Havilland Canada. Production of the Series 300 ended in 2009. In total, 267 aircraft were delivered; according to figures from 2018, around 150 were still in service with a good 30 operators at that time.

Sub-variants and the Q300 name

Over the production run, several sub-variants appeared that differ mainly in engines and weights. The first version, the DHC-8-301, flew with the PW123, the DHC-8-311 from 1990 with the PW123A, the DHC-8-314 from 1992 with the PW123B and the DHC-8-315 from 1995 with the PW123E. Externally you see practically none of this; only the registration in a database tells you the exact sub-variant.

From the second quarter of 1996, the manufacturer built an active noise and vibration suppression system into all new Dash 8s. Bombardier therefore put a “Q” for “Quiet” in front of the models, and the late -300 became the Q300. For spotters, the Dash 8-300 and the Q300 are therefore the same type, just marketed differently.

There are also special versions, for example for maritime surveillance and coast guard duties. The Japan Coast Guard operates such aircraft; one of them collided with a landing Japan Airlines Airbus A350 at Tokyo Haneda Airport on January 2, 2024. Five of the six crew members of the Dash 8 died; everyone aboard the A350 was able to leave the aircraft.

The four features that are enough to identify it

With turboprops, beginners quickly end up at “some ATR”. With four observations you can identify the Dash 8-300 with confidence.

The T-tail and gear in the nacelles narrow it down to the family, propellers and length give you the series. As always, the final word belongs to the registration. How to identify aircraft systematically in general is shown in the guide Aircraft type identification for beginners, and why the landing gear is such a strong feature is explained in the article Landing gear configurations as an identification feature.

The Dash 8 family compared

All Dash 8s share a high wing, a T-tail and gear in the nacelles. The series differ mainly in length and propellers.

Series	ICAO code	Length	Propellers	Seats (typical)
Dash 8-100	DH8A	approx. 22.3 m	4 blades	37–39
Dash 8-200	DH8B	approx. 22.3 m	4 blades	37–39
Dash 8-300	DH8C	approx. 25.7 m	4 blades	50–56
Dash 8-400	DH8D	approx. 32.8 m	6 blades	70–90

Between the -100/-200 and the -300 there is a good three meters, between the -300 and the -400 even about seven. The Dash 8-200 looks almost identical to the -100 and differs mainly in its engines. If you want to collect the whole family, the four-engine Dash 7 is the direct predecessor.

Dash 8-300 or ATR 42?

For decades the ATR 42 was the -300’s direct competitor: a similar number of seats, also a high wing, also two turboprops. The finder helps you tell the two apart.

Older ATR 42s such as the ATR 42-300 fly with four-blade propellers, so the number of propeller blades alone does not separate the two. Rely on the tail and the landing gear instead. A broader overview is given in the article Telling the ATR 42/72 and Dash 8 apart.

Operators: where the Dash 8-300 flies today

In German-speaking countries the -300 was once quite common. Contact Air from Stuttgart ordered three aircraft in 1988 and thus was the first customer outside Canada; the airline flew the type from 1990 to 1997. Austria’s Tyrolean Airways, according to fleet overviews, at times operated over twenty -300s and retired the last ones in 2010. Today the type has practically vanished here.

As of October 2026, these are the most important names:

• Widerøe from Norway is Europe’s big Dash 8 operator. Besides the -100, the -200 and the -400, the airline still had three Dash 8-300s with 50 seats each in its fleet in summer 2025. Widerøe already announced in 2020 that it wants to replace a large part of its Dash 8 fleet by around 2030; individual -300s could therefore leave at any time.
• Jazz Aviation, which flies for Air Canada under the Air Canada Express brand, was long one of the largest -300 operators with 28 aircraft. That era is over: the last commercial flight of a Jazz Dash 8-300 took place on January 9, 2022. Since then the Dash 8-400 has flown under Air Canada Express.
• PAL Airlines from Newfoundland still has a few -300s in its fleet alongside a large Q400 fleet and has also flown for Air Canada Express since 2023, though there with the Q400.
• Air New Zealand is probably the largest Q300 operator today: according to fleet figures from September 2025, 23 aircraft fly regional routes within New Zealand.

In addition there are smaller operators in Africa, Asia and North America as well as government agencies with surveillance versions. The exact distribution changes constantly because used -300s often change hands.

Region	Chance of a sighting	Why
Germany, Austria, Switzerland	very low	no regular operators left
Norway	low to medium	Widerøe still has a few -300s alongside many -100/-400s
Eastern Canada	medium	PAL Airlines with a few -300s
New Zealand	high	Air New Zealand with a large Q300 fleet

Spotting trip: where to search

Because the -300 hardly shows up in central Europe anymore, it is a classic travel destination. In Norway, Widerøe flies a dense regional network; the chances of a Dash 8 are good around Oslo Airport and Bergen Airport, but only tracking tells you whether it is a -300. In Bodø, the Norsk Luftfartsmuseum right at the airport is also worth a visit, giving you everyday Widerøe Dash 8 operations and aviation history in one place.

In Canada the Dash 8 family is ubiquitous anyway, but the -300 has become rarer. At Toronto Pearson Airport and at west coast spots like Larry Berg Flight Path Park in Vancouver you mainly see Q400s from Jazz, Porter Airlines and WestJet Encore – good comparison subjects, but not -300s. More tips for such off-the-beaten-path types are in the article Spotting rare aircraft, and if you would rather experience a -300 yourself, you will find inspiration in Flying rare aircraft types as a passenger.

Photo tips specifically for the Dash 8-300

The -300 is smaller than jets and also smaller than the Q400. That has consequences for focal length and framing.

When the light works at your spot, you can work out in advance with the guide Planning the sun position for your photo spot. Which focal length you need for a rather small aircraft is explained in the article on the right lens for plane spotting.

Incidents in the type’s history

The best-known -300 connection to Germany is an accident: on January 6, 1993, a Contact Air Dash 8-300, operating for Lufthansa CityLine from Bremen to Paris, crashed on approach to Paris Charles de Gaulle just short of the runway. Four of the 23 people on board died. The investigation saw the main cause in the crew, who among other things failed to correct an excessive descent rate despite warnings. The second serious case is the collision at Haneda in 2024 mentioned above, involving an aircraft of the Japan Coast Guard.

Apart from that, the -300 is considered a robust type. For long-lived airframes there are service life extension programs that let operators raise the permitted number of flight cycles. That explains why some aircraft from the 1990s are still in scheduled service today.

Common mix-ups and how to rule them out

If you are generally interested in the small airlines behind such turboprops, the article Regional airlines in Europe gives a good overview.

Conclusion

The Dash 8-300 is the golden mean of the Dash 8 family: a T-tail and gear in the nacelles like every Dash 8, four propeller blades like the -100, and a fuselage that is clearly longer than the -100 but much shorter than the Q400. It has not been built since 2009, Air Canada Express said goodbye to it in 2022, and in German-speaking countries Contact Air and Tyrolean are long gone. Widerøe, PAL and Air New Zealand keep it in the air.