Home › Aircraft › Turboprop Aircraft Guide

Turboprop Aircraft Guide

All turboprops in Tailwinds compared: seats, range, lease cost, fuel burn, and per-seat economics. The cheapest way to fly short, thin routes.

Turboprops are the most misunderstood aircraft in Tailwinds. New players skip them because they look slow and small; experienced players quietly build entire profitable sub-networks on them. Below roughly 800 kilometres, nothing else in the game touches their trip costs — the fuel table below makes the point better than any argument.

Their weekly leases are the lowest in the game, which also makes them the lowest-risk way to experiment. A failed turboprop route costs you pocket change; a failed widebody route can cost you the company.

How to choose

The ATR 72 and Q400 are the modern workhorses — the ATR cheaper to run, the Q400 faster and better over longer regional sectors. Smaller 19–40 seat types unlock genuinely tiny markets (island hops, mountain fields, remote communities) that no jet can serve economically. Range is rarely the constraint; matching seats to a thin market is the whole art.

All 52 aircraft at a glance

Figures are the game's actual values. Fuel cost assumes the base fuel price of $1.20/litre — the live market price in your save drifts between roughly half and nearly double that, which is why fuel hedging matters.

AircraftSeatsRangeCruiseLease/wkPriceFuel/100kmFuel/seat-kmFuel rankLease/seat
Britten-Norman Islander 9 774 km 500 km/h $4K $2M 25 L 4.03¢ 45 / 52 $444
Pilatus PC-12 NGX 9 1,846 km 500 km/h $10K $5M 31 L 5.03¢ 52 / 52 $1,111
Cessna 208B Grand Caravan EX 14 1,982 km 500 km/h $6K $3M 34 L 3.47¢ 36 / 52 $429
Let L-410 Turbolet 19 1,380 km 500 km/h $17K $8M 44 L 3.34¢ 31 / 52 $895
Beechcraft 1900D 19 2,776 km 500 km/h $10K $5M 56 L 4.29¢ 49 / 52 $526
DHC-6 Twin Otter 400 19 1,705 km 500 km/h $14K $7M 50 L 3.82¢ 40 / 52 $737
Dornier 228 19 1,110 km 500 km/h $17K $8M 42 L 3.21¢ 25 / 52 $895
BAe Jetstream 31 19 1,260 km 500 km/h $6K $3M 40 L 3.05¢ 20 / 52 $316
Cessna 408 SkyCourier 19 1,660 km 500 km/h $12K $6M 48 L 3.66¢ 37 / 52 $632
Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante 21 1,900 km 500 km/h $5K $2M 44 L 3.04¢ 19 / 52 $238
Douglas C-47 Skytrain 28 2,600 km 500 km/h $3K $1.1M 94 L 4.85¢ 51 / 52 $104
BAe Jetstream 41 29 1,433 km 500 km/h $10K $5M 62 L 3.10¢ 21 / 52 $345
Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia 30 1,750 km 500 km/h $8K $4M 70 L 3.38¢ 33 / 52 $267
Douglas DC-3 32 2,400 km 500 km/h $4K $1.5M 94 L 4.25¢ 47 / 52 $125
Ilyushin Il-14 32 1,500 km 350 km/h $4K $1.4M 88 L 3.99¢ 44 / 52 $113
Dornier 328 33 1,850 km 500 km/h $12K $6M 95 L 4.17¢ 46 / 52 $364
Saab 340A 34 1,430 km 500 km/h $10K $5M 66 L 2.81¢ 15 / 52 $294
Saab 340B 37 1,560 km 500 km/h $11K $5M 69 L 2.71¢ 13 / 52 $297
Short 360 39 1,178 km 500 km/h $8K $4M 64 L 2.38¢ 5 / 52 $205
De Havilland Dash 8-100 40 1,890 km 500 km/h $10K $4M 91 L 3.29¢ 27 / 52 $250
De Havilland Dash 8-200 40 2,084 km 500 km/h $12K $5M 93 L 3.36¢ 32 / 52 $300
Convair CV-240 40 1,930 km 435 km/h $5K $1.9M 95 L 3.44¢ 35 / 52 $123
Martin 4-0-4 40 1,738 km 450 km/h $5K $1.8M 92 L 3.34¢ 30 / 52 $118
Douglas DC-4 44 4,000 km 365 km/h $5K $1.9M 118 L 3.89¢ 42 / 52 $111
Hawker Siddeley 748 48 1,700 km 452 km/h $8K $3.2M 105 L 3.17¢ 24 / 52 $173
ATR 42-600 50 1,326 km 500 km/h $40K $20M 89 L 2.57¢ 10 / 52 $800
CASA CN-235-300 51 4,355 km 500 km/h $52K $26M 85 L 2.42¢ 6 / 52 $1,020
Fokker F27 Friendship 52 1,900 km 500 km/h $11K $4M 82 L 2.29¢ 4 / 52 $212
Antonov An-24 52 2,400 km 500 km/h $9K $4M 132 L 3.67¢ 38 / 52 $173
Convair CV-440 Metropolitan 52 2,100 km 465 km/h $7K $2.6M 105 L 2.93¢ 18 / 52 $131
Vickers Viscount 700 53 2,830 km 520 km/h $9K $3.6M 120 L 3.28¢ 26 / 52 $175
De Havilland Dash 7 54 1,300 km 500 km/h $12K $5M 143 L 3.85¢ 41 / 52 $222
Canadair North Star 55 6,200 km 520 km/h $6K $2.5M 162 L 4.27¢ 48 / 52 $116
Dash 8-300 56 1,558 km 500 km/h $17K $7M 110 L 2.85¢ 16 / 52 $304
Convair 580 56 2,900 km 500 km/h $7K $3M 110 L 2.85¢ 17 / 52 $125
Saab 2000 58 2,868 km 500 km/h $15K $7M 98 L 2.46¢ 7 / 52 $259
Xian MA60 60 1,600 km 500 km/h $28K $14M 105 L 2.54¢ 9 / 52 $467
Xian MA600 60 1,600 km 500 km/h $31K $16M 102 L 2.46¢ 8 / 52 $517
Lockheed L-749 Constellation 62 4,690 km 480 km/h $8K $3.1M 168 L 3.93¢ 43 / 52 $129
Douglas DC-6B 68 4,835 km 500 km/h $10K $3.8M 155 L 3.31¢ 29 / 52 $146
Vickers Viscount 800 75 2,780 km 530 km/h $12K $4.6M 138 L 2.67¢ 11 / 52 $159
ATR 72-600 78 1,528 km 500 km/h $44K $22M 123 L 2.28¢ 3 / 52 $564
Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation 88 4,300 km 480 km/h $12K $4.6M 200 L 3.30¢ 28 / 52 $135
Dash 8 Q400 90 2,040 km 500 km/h $43K $22M 137 L 2.21¢ 1 / 52 $478
Lockheed L-1649A Starliner 92 9,000 km 490 km/h $15K $5.7M 215 L 3.39¢ 34 / 52 $161
Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation 95 5,840 km 490 km/h $14K $5.3M 205 L 3.13¢ 23 / 52 $145
Boeing 377 Stratocruiser 100 6,760 km 480 km/h $14K $5.2M 300 L 4.35¢ 50 / 52 $135
Lockheed L-188 Electra 104 3,500 km 500 km/h $20K $8M 265 L 3.69¢ 39 / 52 $192
Douglas DC-7C Seven Seas 105 7,410 km 520 km/h $16K $6.1M 225 L 3.11¢ 22 / 52 $150
Ilyushin Il-18 110 6,500 km 625 km/h $13K $4.8M 210 L 2.77¢ 14 / 52 $114
Bristol Britannia 310 139 7,100 km 575 km/h $20K $7.6M 260 L 2.71¢ 12 / 52 $142
Vickers Vanguard 139 2,945 km 640 km/h $16K $6.1M 215 L 2.24¢ 2 / 52 $114

Six turboprops worth a slot in your fleet

Thirty-two types is too many to evaluate honestly, so here are six that cover the decisions you will actually face: what to lease in week one, what to grow into, what to reach for when a runway is impossibly short, and what to walk past no matter how good its fuel figure looks. Match seats to demand first, then range to mission, then price.

Fokker F27 Friendship — the week-one workhorse

Third on the fuel table at 2.29 cents per seat-kilometre, and the two types ahead of it both lease for more than $43,000 a week. The Fokker asks $11,000. That is $212 for each of its 52 seats, and even after the $8,000 maintenance bill you are running $19,000 a week — $365 a seat, all in — for an aircraft that burns fuel within a whisker of a modern ATR. Against a $10M opening balance you can put three of these in the air, open six or seven routes, and still hold enough cash to absorb a bad fuel week without grounding anything.

The compromise is on the ground. It wants 5,300 feet of runway, the second-longest requirement of any turboprop here, beaten only by the Electra's 5,500. That rules out precisely the sort of small field where a cheap 52-seater would otherwise print money, so build your first network around proper regional airports rather than airstrips. Range is 1,900km, far beyond anything you should be flying with it, which at least means a misjudged market is still reachable. Buying outright costs $4M — 364 weeks of lease payments. Lease it now; revisit the maths when your balance is measured in tens of millions.

Short 360 — thin-market scalpel

Thirty-nine seats for an $8,000 lease works out at $205 apiece, and only four types in the game beat that number: the Convair 580 and DC-3 at $125, the An-24 at $173, the Electra at $192. Every single one of them burns at least 2.85 cents per seat-kilometre. The Short 360 burns 2.38, fourth-best of the 32. Cheap seats attached to genuinely cheap fuel is a combination that exists nowhere else on the list, and the 4,300ft runway requirement is ordinary rather than restrictive.

Run the all-in numbers against the Fokker and something useful falls out. Lease plus maintenance on the Short is $14,200 a week across 39 seats, or $364 each; on the F27 it is $19,000 across 52 seats, or $365. They cost effectively the same to operate per seat. So the choice between them is purely about demand — take the 360 wherever the market will not fill 52 seats, because in that case the extra thirteen are dead weight rather than upside. Its 1,178km range is the shortest of anything recommended here, which is no handicap at all; see route economics for why turboprop margins evaporate with distance.

Saab 2000 — the mid-game bridge

Compare it with the Xian MA600 and the case makes itself. Both burn 2.46 cents per seat-kilometre. The Xian carries 60 seats for a $31,000 lease; the Saab carries 58 for $15,000. You would be paying $16,000 a week — $832,000 across a year — for two extra seats and 1,268 fewer kilometres of range. At $259 a seat, only the Lockheed Electra offers cheaper seats at this size, and the Electra burns 3.69 cents to do it.

The Dash 8-300 is the other obvious rival, and it loses on every column: 56 seats to the Saab's 58, 2.85 cents to 2.46, a $17,000 lease to $15,000, $11,200 of maintenance to $9,600, and 1,558km of range to 2,868. Both cost $7M to buy. There is no configuration of routes in which you should prefer it. What the Saab's range actually buys is optionality — when a hub throws up an 1,800km market that would otherwise force you into a jet, this is the turboprop that can still reach it without adding a second aircraft class to your maintenance bill.

Dash 8 Q400 — the modern workhorse worth growing into

Everything on the Q400 points in one direction: volume. Ninety seats is more than any other turboprop bar the 104-seat Electra, and it burns 2.21 cents per seat-kilometre, the best figure in the entire category. The $43,000 lease looks brutal beside a $15,000 Saab until you divide it out at $478 a seat, against $564 on the ATR 72-600. Fold in maintenance — $16,800, the heaviest weekly bill of any turboprop — and the Q400 costs $664 per seat per week to the ATR's $744, while carrying twelve more passengers.

That is the whole argument, and it holds only if you fill the aeroplane. Ninety empty seats at $59,800 a week will bleed you faster than any fuel spike, so grow into this type from a hub with proven traffic rather than speculating with it — hub strategy covers how to manufacture that demand first. The 4,300ft runway requirement shuts you out of the small fields where the little types earn their keep, and 2,040km of range is generous for missions you should be flying under 800km anyway. Purchase is $22M, or 512 weeks of lease: a decision for a mature balance sheet, not week thirty.

CASA CN-235-300 — the trap

The fuel column lies about this one. At 2.42 cents per seat-kilometre the CASA sits fifth of 32, ahead of the ATR 42-600 and both Xians, and if that is the only figure you read you will lease it. Then the bill arrives: $52,000 a week for 51 seats, which is $1,020 per seat. The Fokker F27 carries 52 — one more — for $11,000. That $41,000 weekly gap is $2.13M over a year, handed across for nothing but a longer range you will never have a use for.

4,355km is the longest reach of any turboprop in the game and it is worthless on the sub-800km sectors where these aircraft beat jets in the first place. The purchase price compounds the joke at $26M — four million more than a 90-seat Q400. Its one honest virtue, an $8,000 maintenance bill, comes nowhere near covering a lease three times the size of the Saab 2000's. The same disease appears elsewhere: the Dornier 228 and Let L-410 both ask $895 a seat for nineteen passengers, and the Pilatus PC-12 wants $1,111 for nine. Efficiency you never fill is a statistic, not a profit.

DHC-6 Twin Otter 400 — the key to locked airports

Twelve hundred feet. That is the entire reason to own one, and it is reason enough. Only the Britten-Norman Islander matches that runway figure, and the Islander offers nine seats and 774km of range to work with; the Twin Otter gives you nineteen seats and 1,705km. Below 2,300ft — where the Dash 7 and the L-410 bottom out — the fleet list simply stops offering you anything, so an airport in that band belongs entirely to whoever bothered to lease the aircraft that can land there.

Nobody takes one for the economics. 3.82 cents per seat-kilometre ranks 26th of 32, the $14,000 lease is $737 a seat, and with $4,000 of maintenance you are spending $18,000 a week to move nineteen passengers — $947 each. Those numbers only work when there is no alternative, because an uncontested field lets you hold fares no AI carrier is in a position to undercut. Never fly it where something cheaper fits: a Cessna 208B needs 2,400ft, leases for $6,000 and burns 3.47 cents. Check the runway figure before you commit; if the strip takes the Cessna, the Twin Otter is just an expensive habit.

Every type in the category

Reference entries for all 52, in the same order as the table. The table above carries seats, range, cruise speed, lease, price and fuel; these add the runway each type needs and its weekly maintenance bill.

Britten-Norman Islander

Britten-Norman · Turboprop · needs 1,200 ft · maintenance $2K/wk

Tiny island-hopper. Operates from grass strips and short runways.

Pilatus PC-12 NGX

Pilatus · Turboprop · needs 2,600 ft · maintenance $2K/wk

Premium Swiss single-engine turboprop. Excellent short-field performance.

Cessna 208B Grand Caravan EX

Cessna · Turboprop · needs 2,400 ft · maintenance $2K/wk

Single-engine utility turboprop. Ideal for remote communities and island routes.

Let L-410 Turbolet

Aircraft Industries · Turboprop · needs 2,300 ft · maintenance $4K/wk

Czech twin-turboprop. Workhorse of Eastern European and African regional aviation.

Beechcraft 1900D

Beechcraft · Turboprop · needs 3,800 ft · maintenance $5K/wk

Reliable 19-seat commuter with stand-up cabin. Popular in the US regionals.

DHC-6 Twin Otter 400

Viking Air · Turboprop · needs 1,200 ft · maintenance $4K/wk

STOL legend. Operates from water, ice, grass, and gravel runways worldwide.

Dornier 228

Dornier · Turboprop · needs 2,600 ft · maintenance $4K/wk

Rugged STOL commuter with a boxy fuselage. Popular for island and bush work.

BAe Jetstream 31

British Aerospace · Turboprop · needs 4,600 ft · maintenance $3K/wk

19-seat British commuter twin, a fixture of 1980s feeder networks.

Cessna 408 SkyCourier

Cessna · Turboprop · needs 3,600 ft · maintenance $4K/wk

New high-wing utility twin. Carries 19 passengers or LD3-friendly freight for feeder operators.

Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante

Embraer · Turboprop · needs 3,900 ft · maintenance $3K/wk

Embraer's first airliner, a no-frills 18-seat utility commuter twin.

Douglas C-47 Skytrain

Douglas · Turboprop · needs 3,000 ft · maintenance $7K/wk

The surplus DC-3. Military cargo door, bare cabin, bargain price — the airframe most postwar start-ups actually began with.

BAe Jetstream 41

British Aerospace · Turboprop · needs 4,900 ft · maintenance $5K/wk

Stretched Jetstream seating 29, a step up into larger commuter markets.

Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia

Embraer · Turboprop · needs 5,200 ft · maintenance $6K/wk

Sleek Brazilian 30-seat turboprop that built Embraer's regional reputation.

Douglas DC-3

Douglas · Turboprop · needs 3,000 ft · maintenance $6K/wk

The aircraft that made air travel mainstream. A 1930s piston legend still flying today on bush and heritage routes.

Ilyushin Il-14

Ilyushin · Turboprop · needs 3,300 ft · maintenance $7K/wk

Rugged Soviet twin for short sectors and rough strips. Simple, slow, nearly unbreakable.

Dornier 328

Dornier · Turboprop · needs 3,400 ft · maintenance $8K/wk

Fast, quiet German regional turboprop with a wide stand-up cabin for its size.

Saab 340A

Saab · Turboprop · needs 4,300 ft · maintenance $6K/wk

Early-build Saab 340. An affordable 34-seat regional twin for thin routes.

Saab 340B

Saab · Turboprop · needs 4,300 ft · maintenance $7K/wk

Dependable Swedish regional. Widely used in North America and Scandinavia.

Short 360

Short Brothers · Turboprop · needs 4,300 ft · maintenance $6K/wk

Boxy but effective 36-seater. Low acquisition cost for thin UK/Irish routes.

De Havilland Dash 8-100

De Havilland Canada · Turboprop · needs 3,100 ft · maintenance $9K/wk

The original Dash 8, a STOL-capable 39-seat regional turboprop.

De Havilland Dash 8-200

De Havilland Canada · Turboprop · needs 3,300 ft · maintenance $10K/wk

Higher-powered Dash 8-100 with better speed and hot-and-high performance.

Convair CV-240

Convair · Turboprop · needs 4,500 ft · maintenance $8K/wk

The postwar DC-3 replacement: pressurised, faster, and built for the short-haul grind.

Martin 4-0-4

Martin · Turboprop · needs 4,300 ft · maintenance $8K/wk

Pressurised local-service twin. A solid regional workhorse for the trunk-feeder routes.

Douglas DC-4

Douglas · Turboprop · needs 4,500 ft · maintenance $9K/wk

War-surplus workhorse. Cheap, slow and unpressurised — the airframe that built the postwar route map.

Hawker Siddeley 748

Hawker Siddeley · Turboprop · needs 3,500 ft · maintenance $8K/wk

The DC-3 replacement that stuck. Rough-field regional twin with a 26-year production run.

ATR 42-600

ATR · Turboprop · needs 3,600 ft · maintenance $9K/wk

Small regional turboprop. Ideal for thin short-haul routes under 1,300 km.

CASA CN-235-300

Airbus/CASA · Turboprop · needs 3,900 ft · maintenance $8K/wk

Spanish STOL transport with impressive range. Popular in military and civil roles.

Fokker F27 Friendship

Fokker · Turboprop · needs 5,300 ft · maintenance $8K/wk

Best-selling European turboprop of its generation and a reliable regional workhorse.

Antonov An-24

Antonov · Turboprop · needs 4,300 ft · maintenance $9K/wk

Tough Soviet high-wing turboprop built to operate from gravel and ice strips.

Convair CV-440 Metropolitan

Convair · Turboprop · needs 4,600 ft · maintenance $9K/wk

The refined Convair-liner: better soundproofing, weather radar, tighter economics.

Vickers Viscount 700

Vickers · Turboprop · needs 4,800 ft · maintenance $11K/wk

The first turboprop airliner. Quiet, smooth and fast — passengers cross the cabin to look at the props.

De Havilland Dash 7

De Havilland Canada · Turboprop · needs 2,300 ft · maintenance $11K/wk

Four-engine STOL airliner able to use very short city-centre and mountain strips.

Canadair North Star

Canadair · Turboprop · needs 4,800 ft · maintenance $14K/wk

A DC-4 re-engined with Merlins — faster and longer-legged than anything else of 1947, and loud enough that passengers complained in writing.

Dash 8-300

De Havilland Canada · Turboprop · needs 3,500 ft · maintenance $11K/wk

The classic Dash 8 in its most popular variant. Cheap, reliable, and widely supported. A workhorse of thin short-haul routes worldwide.

Convair 580

Convair · Turboprop · needs 5,000 ft · maintenance $9K/wk

Turboprop conversion of the Convair 340/440 piston twins. A durable regional hauler.

Saab 2000

Saab · Turboprop · needs 4,200 ft · maintenance $10K/wk

Fast 50-seat turboprop, nearly jet speed. Competes on thin short-haul routes.

Xian MA60

Xian · Turboprop · needs 3,900 ft · maintenance $10K/wk

Chinese 60-seat turboprop developed from the An-24 lineage for domestic regional routes.

Xian MA600

Xian · Turboprop · needs 4,300 ft · maintenance $10K/wk

Modernized MA60 with glass cockpit and updated systems.

Lockheed L-749 Constellation

Lockheed · Turboprop · needs 5,500 ft · maintenance $16K/wk

The triple-tailed thoroughbred. Pressurised comfort and real range, paid for in Wright radial overhauls.

Douglas DC-6B

Douglas · Turboprop · needs 5,200 ft · maintenance $15K/wk

The piston airliner that actually made money. Dependable R-2800s and honest economics.

Vickers Viscount 800

Vickers · Turboprop · needs 5,000 ft · maintenance $13K/wk

The stretched Viscount. More seats on the same sweet Dart turboprops.

ATR 72-600

ATR · Turboprop · needs 4,200 ft · maintenance $14K/wk

Workhorse turboprop. Excellent economics on short regional routes.

Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation

Lockheed · Turboprop · needs 5,800 ft · maintenance $21K/wk

The stretched Connie as first built: plain R-3350s, no tip tanks. Most of a 1049G four years early, and it will not cross an ocean.

Dash 8 Q400

De Havilland Canada · Turboprop · needs 4,300 ft · maintenance $17K/wk

Fast turboprop with longer range than ATR. Popular for inter-city routes.

Lockheed L-1649A Starliner

Lockheed · Turboprop · needs 6,600 ft · maintenance $26K/wk

The last and greatest piston airliner. Nonstop anywhere — and obsolete on delivery.

Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation

Lockheed · Turboprop · needs 6,000 ft · maintenance $24K/wk

The definitive Connie. Transatlantic range and tip tanks — the flagship of the piston era.

Boeing 377 Stratocruiser

Boeing · Turboprop · needs 6,500 ft · maintenance $30K/wk

Double-deck luxury with a lower-deck lounge. Glamorous, unreliable, and ruinous to maintain.

Lockheed L-188 Electra

Lockheed · Turboprop · needs 5,500 ft · maintenance $16K/wk

Fast American four-engine turboprop; airframe later spawned the P-3 Orion.

Douglas DC-7C Seven Seas

Douglas · Turboprop · needs 6,300 ft · maintenance $28K/wk

The first airliner to cross the Atlantic nonstop both ways — on turbo-compound engines the shops learn to dread.

Ilyushin Il-18

Ilyushin · Turboprop · needs 5,600 ft · maintenance $16K/wk

Soviet turboprop workhorse. Cheap seats, long legs, and a production run that outlasts the jets chasing it.

Bristol Britannia 310

Bristol · Turboprop · needs 6,700 ft · maintenance $22K/wk

The Whispering Giant. Superb long-range turboprop that arrived two years before the jets made it obsolete.

Vickers Vanguard

Vickers · Turboprop · needs 6,000 ft · maintenance $18K/wk

Huge, cheap seat-mile costs — and nobody wants a turboprop the year the jets arrive. A bargain for those who look.

Play Tailwinds — It's Free →