In 2021, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council unveiled guidelines on developing comprehensive transportation network, incorporating the low-altitude economy into the development plan for the first time. In June 2022, CAAC issued the “14th Five-Year Plan for General Aviation Development (the Plan)”, which contains the roadmap for AAM operational development and, in particular, the development of the low-altitude economy. It is evident from the Plan that the State will continuously make strategic deployments at the macro level and in top-level design, and support the expansion of applications such as agricultural, industrial, logistical, and leisure applications, so as to promote cross-industry.

The Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of 2023 clearly proposed to develop several strategic emerging industries including the low-altitude economy. In the two sessions, “low-altitude economy” was written into the government work report for the first time, proposing to actively foster the low-altitude economy and other new growth engines. On August 27, 2024, the General Administration of Sport of China announced the newly revised Measures for the Administration of Aviation Sports, which took effect on October 1, 2024. In addition, various provincial and municipal governments have successively issued plans and guidelines for the high-quality development of the low-altitude economy.

According to the data from CCID Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Informatization, the scale of China’s low-altitude economy reached 506 billion yuan in 2023, with a year-on-year growth rate of 33.8%. It is optimistically estimated that by 2026, the scale of China’s low-altitude economy is expected to exceed one trillion yuan, reaching 1,064.5 billion yuan. Among them, the scale of China’s eVTOL industry reached 980 million yuan in 2023, with a year-on-year growth rate of 77.3%; it is expected to reach 9.5 billion yuan by 2026. The market scale of China’s civil drones increased to 165 billion yuan in 2023. From 2024 to 2028, the average annual growth rate of the domestic civil drone market is expected to be nearly 20%. In 2023, the total flight hours of general aviation in China reached 1.371 million hours, among which the flight hours of passenger-carrying and cargo-carrying flights increased by 55.1% and 34.7% year-on-year respectively. It’s a time of promising opportunities, and the era of the low-altitude economy has arrived.