China’s Low-Altitude Economy Soars with Drone Innovation

At a park in Shenzhen City, south China’s Guangdong Province, a drone drop-off point has become a popular spot for residents. By simply scanning a QR code, people can order food and have it delivered by drones in as little as 30 minutes.

Chinese online platform Meituan has established around 30 drone-operated food delivery routes in Shenzhen, facilitating over 300,000 orders to date. The service areas include office buildings, communities, scenic spots, municipal parks, and campuses.

At the recent annual Central Economic Work Conference, China pledged to leverage scientific and technological innovation to drive the development of new quality productive forces and build a modernized industrial system.

Navigating Low-Altitude Skies

The low-altitude economy, encompassing both traditional aviation businesses and drone-supported production and services, is emerging as a forerunner in China’s development of new quality productive forces. This sector was included in the government work report for the first time this year.

China boasts a vast market and dense city clusters. A report by a research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that the sector’s value reached 505.95 billion yuan (about $70.92 billion) in 2023 and is projected to surpass 1 trillion yuan by 2026.

Various aerial vehicles, such as large airships for low-altitude tourism, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for express delivery and urban transportation, as well as aerial photography and emergency rescue, are increasingly employed across various scenarios. They are proving to be effective tools for a range of activities and operations.

In February, a five-seat eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft completed its first intercity electric air-taxi demonstration flight from Shenzhen to a ferry port in the nearby city of Zhuhai. The air-taxi took only 20 minutes to complete a journey that takes over two hours by car.

In August, a commercial passenger helicopter took off from an airport in Kunshan, east China’s Jiangsu Province, heading to Shanghai Pudong Airport with a maximum cruising speed of nearly 200 kilometers per hour.

Meanwhile, drone-conducted “patrol teams” and “traffic police” have emerged in many cities, offering advantages in accident handling, order management, traffic diversion, and traffic flow detection.

By integrating BeiDou’s communication technology, artificial intelligence, and intelligent image recognition, around 80 percent of drones can conduct autonomous inspections. This allows inspection personnel to assess on-site conditions without needing to visit the location.

According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), nearly 608,000 UAVs were newly registered in the first half of 2024, a 48 percent increase from the figure registered at the end of 2023.

“The data indicates that China’s low-altitude economy is entering a stage of rapid development,” said Song Zhiyong, head of the CAAC.