Xian MA60

Updated: October 2026 – A twin-engine high-wing aircraft taxis across an apron somewhere in Laos, Zimbabwe or southern China. At first glance it looks like an ATR, but the tail does not fit, and the wing has a slight kink that you know from the Antonov An-24. Chances are you are looking at a Xian MA60 – China’s regional turboprop, which almost never shows up in Europe. Here is where the aircraft comes from, how to identify it with confidence and where you have any chance of a sighting at all.

What is the Xian MA60?

The MA60 is a twin-engine regional turboprop for about 60 passengers, built by Xi’an Aircraft Industrial Corporation, a company of the state-owned Chinese aviation group AVIC. In the cabin, passengers sit four abreast, on the left and right of a center aisle. The aircraft is designed for short routes and simple airfields: the previous generation was expressly developed for operations with little ground infrastructure and short runways, and the MA60 inherited this ruggedness.

The abbreviation is interpreted as “Modern Ark 60”, a modern “ark” for 60 seats. In Chinese the type is called Xinzhou 60. The first flight took place in 2000, the Chinese aviation authority CAAC issued the type certificate the same year, and in August 2000 the first aircraft entered service with Sichuan Airlines. For a comparison with other Chinese civil programs, take a look at the manufacturer COMAC, which today makes the headlines with the ARJ21 and the C919.

From the An-24 to the MA60: a long line of ancestors

To understand the MA60, you have to go back about 60 years. In the 1960s, Xi’an began to copy the Soviet Antonov An-24 in China. The first aircraft assembled in China took off at the end of 1970, but series production progressed only slowly because of the political upheavals of that time. Only in the mid-1980s did the Chinese version roll off the line in larger numbers as the Y-7 – mostly for the air force, with some going to the then state airline CAAC as an airliner.

Over the following years, several civil developments emerged:

Version	Development highlights
Y-7	Chinese copy of the An-24 with domestically built WJ-5 turbines
Y-7-100	Revised cockpit and cabin, Western avionics, winglets, 52 seats
Y7-200A	Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127C engines instead of WJ-5
MA60	Stretched Y7-200A with PW127J, modern equipment, about 60 seats
MA600	Improved MA60 with new cabin and avionics, prototype 2008

So the MA60 is not a simple clone, but the result of decades of evolution. With Western engines and avionics, it was meant to become more attractive than the older Y-7 above all for customers outside China. The military relative of the family, by the way, goes back to the Antonov An-26, which China copied as the Y-7H with a rear ramp. You can read more about the origin of the design on the page for the manufacturer Antonov.

The three features that are enough to identify it

For the MA60 you do not need a detail shot. Three observations are enough to separate it from Western turboprops and from its Soviet ancestors.

In the end, as always, the registration confirms the type. Chinese aircraft carry a B registration with digits – how the system works is explained in the article on Chinese B registrations. Export aircraft fly with the registration of their home country.

MA60, ATR 72 or Dash 8?

At many regional airports in Asia and Africa, MA60s and Western turboprops stand side by side. The finder helps you narrow it down quickly.

The comparison with the ATR 72-500 and the ATR 72-600 is interesting: both use engines from the same Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127 family as the MA60. So you will hardly tell the types apart by sound – but you will by the tail right away. The Dash 8-400 is also significantly longer. For an overview of all common propeller aircraft, see the guide How to tell turboprops apart.

MA60 or An-24?

Within the family it gets trickier. The following table summarizes the most important differences that you can also see from some distance.

Feature	Xian MA60	Antonov An-24
Engines	PW127J, slim nacelles	AI-24, large, long nacelles
Auxiliary power unit in the nacelle	no	yes on some versions (An-24RV)
Status	In production since 2000	Built in the 1960s and 1970s
Typical operators	China, Southeast Asia, Africa	Russia, Central Asia, Africa
ICAO type designator	MA60	AN24

Even more similar are older Chinese Y-7s, which look closer to the An-24 and sometimes fly with winglets. In civil scheduled service they are rare today; Y-7 variants can still be found with the military and government agencies. Another Antonov alternative for regional routes was the An-140, which also appears as a high-wing aircraft with two turboprops but is an independent design.

Operators and distribution

From the start, the MA60 was also intended as an export aircraft. By the mid-2010s, around 100 had been built, about half of them going abroad. Air Zimbabwe received the first export aircraft in May 2005. Many deliveries went through state loans or as gifts from the Chinese government to partner countries.

In China itself, the MA60 flew with several regional airlines, including launch customer Sichuan Airlines. An important domestic operator for years was Joy Air, a subsidiary of the AVIC group; Okay Airways also operated the type. In addition, the Chinese air force, naval aviation and the state weather service use the MA60, the latter among other things for weather modification.

Abroad, the MA60 has appeared in the following regions, among others:

• Southeast Asia: Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Indonesia (Merpati Nusantara, historic), the Philippines (Zest Airways, historic)
• South Asia: Sri Lanka (air force) and Nepal – Nepal Airlines grounded its MA60s in 2020
• Africa: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Burundi, Cameroon and Djibouti, partly with government or military agencies
• South America: Bolivia and Ecuador, each with military operators
• Pacific: Tonga, where Real Tonga operated the type until early 2015

Accidents and controversies

The MA60’s service history is not free of setbacks. By November 2015, 14 accidents with the type had been counted, many of them on landing and several related to the landing gear. In early 2014, at the manufacturer’s request, the Chinese aviation authority imposed a temporary grounding of 15 MA60s worldwide to check the landing gear indication system.

The worst accident occurred in May 2011: a Merpati Nusantara MA60 crashed into the sea on approach to Kaimana in Indonesia, and everyone on board died. Indonesian authorities later attributed the accident to human error. Other incidents involved Zest Airways in the Philippines, Merpati in Kupang, and Joy Air in Zhengzhou and Fuzhou, among others.

The case of Tonga became politically sensitive in 2013: after an MA60 donated by China entered service with Real Tonga, New Zealand suspended its tourism aid to the country and advised travelers against flying on the type. The reason given was that the MA60 is not certified in New Zealand and comparable jurisdictions. Real Tonga ended operations with the aircraft in early 2015 after Tonga adopted New Zealand aviation regulations.

Important for putting this in context: the MA60 has no EASA or FAA certification, because Xi’an never applied for it there. That does not automatically amount to a safety verdict, but it explains why the type is absent in Europe and North America.

Where to see the MA60 today

For spotters from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the MA60 is a classic travel exotic. It does not appear in domestic scheduled service, and visits by foreign operators are highly unlikely as well. If you want the type in your hangar, you have to fly to it.

Region	Chance of a sighting	Why
DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)	very low	No EASA certification, no European operators
China	medium	Government, training and military aircraft, civil only occasionally
Laos, Cambodia	medium to low	Government and regional operators, fleet fluctuates
Africa	low to medium	Government aircraft and smaller airlines, often parked

The best approach is to filter tracking services by the code MA60 and see which aircraft have actually moved in recent weeks. How this works with ADS-B data is explained in the guide to flight tracking with ADS-B, and the logic behind such codes in the article ICAO type designators explained. If you want not just to see the type but to experience it, you will find ideas in the article Flying rare aircraft types as a passenger.

Outside Europe in particular, rules on photography at airports are often stricter, especially where airfields are also used by the military. Clarify this in advance rather than risking trouble on the spot. How to plan such a trip affordably is covered in the article Planning spotting trips on a budget.

Photo tips for the MA60

The MA60 is not a big aircraft, but it is a subject with character. A few points help you frame it in a way that suits the type.

When the light suits your vantage point, you can work out in advance with the guide Planning the sun position for your photo spot. And how to judge how special your sighting really is, you can read in Spotting rare aircraft.

Common mix-ups and how to rule them out

Conclusion

The Xian MA60 is a piece of Chinese aviation history: created from a copy of the An-24, modernized over decades and finally exported around the world with Western engines. Its reputation is mixed because of accidents and operating problems, but for spotters it is precisely its rarity that makes it appealing. You will not see it in Europe – on trips to Asia or Africa it pays to keep your eyes open.