The An-124 announced itself to the world with records. In July 1985, Soviet crews lifted 171,219 kg of cargo to 2,000 m, and 170,000 kg to 10,750 m, setting a series of payload-to-altitude marks that beat those of the C-5 Galaxy. In May 1987, an An-124 flew a closed circuit of 20,151 km without refuelling in about 25.5 hours, setting a distance record for its class.

The records were partly propaganda, but they were also real demonstrations of the aircraft’s capability. They established the An-124 as the reference point for heavy airlift, a status it kept even after the six-engined An-225 Mriya, developed from it, flew in 1988 to carry the Buran space shuttle. Only one An-225 was completed, and it was destroyed at Hostomel in 2022, so the An-124 remained the largest production cargo aircraft in regular service, outranking the Boeing 747-8F and C-5M in payload and hold volume for outsize loads.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 divided the An-124 fleet. At Hostomel, Antonov’s home airfield near Kyiv, Russian airborne forces attacked the airport in the first hours of the war. An-124 UR-82009, at the airfield for maintenance, was destroyed by artillery fire during the fighting, alongside the An-225 Mriya. Five other Ukrainian An-124s were away from Ukraine and were diverted to Leipzig/Halle, which became the base of Antonov Airlines’ operations.

Russian-registered An-124s were caught by airspace closures. One, operated by Volga-Dnepr and registered RA-82078, had landed at Toronto Pearson on 27 February 2022 and was unable to leave after Canada closed its airspace to Russian aircraft. In June 2023, Canada seized the aircraft under its sanctions legislation, with the stated intention of forfeiting it to support Ukraine. Other Volga-Dnepr aircraft were stranded elsewhere, and the Russian fleet was largely restricted to Russian state and military flights and destinations that remained open to it.

• An-124: military transport of the Soviet, then Russian Air Force, entering service in 1986.
• An-124-100: civil version certified in December 1992, with a crew of six and a payload of up to 120 tonnes under civil rules.
• An-124-100M: modernised version with improved avionics and a reduced crew.
• An-124-100M-150: version with strengthened structure and higher maximum weights, allowing payloads of up to 150 tonnes.
• An-225 Mriya: six-engined derivative built to carry the Buran shuttle, flown in 1988; only one completed.

Plans in the 2000s for a joint Russian-Ukrainian restart of production with modernised An-124-300 versions were not carried out. The NATO SALIS programme, based on charters from Antonov and Volga-Dnepr in its early years, gave Western air forces access to the type’s capability. Under its current contract, NATO says the participating countries have one aircraft on 72 hours’ notice and further aircraft on six and nine days’ notice.

The An-124 is expensive to operate. Four D-18T turbofans burn large quantities of fuel, the aircraft needs a large crew and the engines and airframe require extensive maintenance. Life-extension programmes for an aircraft whose production ended in 2004 add to the cost. Yet the type has long earned its keep because, for many loads, there is no alternative: few other aircraft can carry outsize items of 100 tonnes or more through a full-width nose door.

Charter operators price An-124 flights per mission rather than per hour, and the figures depend on route, load, fuel prices and positioning flights. Public examples include the 2005 return of the Obelisk of Axum, which cost Italy about USD 7.7 million for the whole operation. Since 2022, sanctions and the split between Russian and Ukrainian fleets have reduced availability and increased prices for Western customers. Any hourly figure given here is therefore an estimate rather than a published rate.