Three-Year Triple Jump Becomes New Pillar Growth, Low-Altitude Economy Faces Safety and Airspace Challenge at 1.5 Trillion Output Mark

During the 2026 National Two Sessions, the low-altitude economy became a highly关注 topic across various sectors. In the 2026 government work report, the low-altitude economy was included for the third time as a key industry layout, with its strategic positioning upgraded from a new growth engine and emerging industry to a new pillar industry, reflecting the continuous strengthening of national attention to this field.

As policy systems improve and industry implementation accelerates, the low-altitude economy has moved beyond early planning stages into a scale-up phase. Demonstrations of aircraft at scenes like the CCTV Spring Festival Gala and pilot applications in multiple regions confirm that the industry is entering an acceleration period.

While the industry is rapidly expanding, issues such as safety regulation, technological shortfalls, supply-demand matching, and airspace management are increasingly prominent. During the Two Sessions, many representatives, committee members, and industry experts like Wu Renbiao offered suggestions, proposing systematic ideas around key development issues to support the orderly and regulated growth of the low-altitude economy, pushing this emerging pillar industry toward high-quality development.

On February 24, 2026, visitors exit an eVTOL aircraft cabin. Photo source: Xinhua News Agency

Three-year policy leap: from concept cultivation to a trillion-yuan emerging pillar industry

The 2026 government work report listed the low-altitude economy alongside integrated circuits and aerospace as a new pillar industry. This marks the third consecutive year that the low-altitude economy has been included in the report, signifying its transition from a cultivation phase and new growth point to a core force in national layout, fostering new productive forces and creating a new engine for economic growth.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, in 2025, the output value of the low-altitude economy and five other emerging pillar industries approached 6 trillion yuan, with projections indicating that by 2030, the scale will exceed 10 trillion yuan, rapidly opening a trillion-yuan market space.

At the national strategic level, the low-altitude economy has achieved a clear hierarchical leap. It was incorporated into the national integrated three-dimensional transportation network planning outline in 2021, initiating policy layout; in 2024, it was positioned as a new growth engine with pilot explorations launched across regions; in 2025, it was included in the “14th Five-Year Plan” recommendations, with the National Development and Reform Commission establishing a Low-Altitude Economy Development Department, and supporting agencies set up across multiple departments. The civil aviation law was comprehensively revised for the first time in 30 years, establishing a basic institutional framework; in 2026, it became a new pillar industry, entering a high-quality development stage characterized by regulation, scale, and commercialization.

Unmanned aerial vehicle logistics and delivery are becoming application scenarios attracting more enterprise attention. Photo source: Southern Weekly

The industry’s implementation process continues to accelerate, with technological achievements and application scenarios shifting from pilot demonstrations to routine operations. In 2026, the CCTV Spring Festival Gala showcased low-altitude equipment at two major venues, with Hefei displaying drone swarms and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft technology, and Yibin featuring the world’s first electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft water takeoff and landing facility, indicating that technology and infrastructure are maturing simultaneously.

Regional industry layouts have also achieved substantive breakthroughs. Guangzhou built the world’s first factory producing tens of thousands of flying cars; Shenzhen’s drone delivery volume exceeded 1.4 million flights annually; cities like Xi’an and Hengshui have applied low-altitude solutions in emergency rescue, cultural tourism, and other fields. Drones are increasingly used in agriculture, urban inspection, emergency rescue, and intra-city logistics, with coverage and usage frequency continuing to expand.

Industry data show that in 2024, China’s low-altitude economy market size reached 670.25 billion yuan, surpassing 1.5 trillion yuan in 2025, with an expected average annual growth rate of over 25%. In 2025, drone registrations increased by 57% year-on-year, flight hours grew by 70%, and a total of 19 types of unmanned aircraft received airworthiness certificates, with six new types added that year. Over 50 projects are under review, and China’s new aircraft type certification capacity ranks among the top globally. From the enterprise perspective, in 2025, the number of registered companies related to the low-altitude economy rose to 49,000, a 142.26% increase year-on-year, reaching a peak in both registration volume and growth rate in nearly a decade.

Capital attention continues to rise, with upstream and downstream enterprises accelerating clustering. The entire industry chain—from core equipment manufacturing to operation services and infrastructure—begins to form a collaborative development pattern. The low-altitude economy is transitioning from concept validation to a critical period of large-scale, commercialized implementation.

Facing “black flights” and “bottleneck” issues, airspace management and core technology breakthroughs needed

While the low-altitude economy develops rapidly, safety hazards, technological gaps, airspace restrictions, and market imbalances are increasingly apparent, becoming key bottlenecks restricting high-quality growth.

Currently, low-altitude flight activities are becoming more frequent, with incidents of “black flights” and illegal flying occurring from time to time. The regulatory system for low-altitude airspace remains immature, and safety management capabilities lag behind industry development. Especially for manned electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, complex flying environments, variable weather, and emergency handling challenges pose significant safety risks. Accidents could cause property losses and severely impact public trust, hindering large-scale industry promotion.

Additionally, safety responsibility systems are unclear, with undefined boundaries among manufacturers, operators, and regulators. Accident accountability and compensation mechanisms are imperfect, and risk management tools like insurance are underutilized, making it difficult to establish a comprehensive safety protection network.

A major deep-rooted shortcoming is insufficient autonomous control of core technologies. While China leads globally in consumer drone markets, it still faces “bottleneck” issues in manned low-altitude aircraft and high-end industrial drones.

On February 13, 2026, an eVTOL took off and hovered in the air. Photo source: Xinhua News Agency

In terms of power systems, high-energy-density, high-safety low-altitude dedicated batteries are not yet mature, with limited endurance, low-temperature performance, and safety reliability unable to meet commercial operation needs. For flight control systems, high-precision navigation, and intelligent obstacle avoidance, some key chips and sensors still rely on imports, and autonomous R&D and iteration capabilities are insufficient, restricting aircraft performance improvements and cost reductions.

Furthermore, the airworthiness certification system is incomplete. Standards and approval procedures for new low-altitude aircraft are unclear, and referencing traditional aircraft standards results in lengthy approval cycles, affecting product commercialization and technological transfer.

Insufficient supply and management mechanisms for airspace resources are core constraints. As essential production factors for the low-altitude economy, current low-altitude airspace is poorly delineated, with low openness and complicated approval processes. A unified national low-altitude navigation chart has not been completed, and a connected low-altitude route network has not formed. Airspace use lacks systematic planning. Management authority is overly centralized, with grassroots and market entities lacking autonomous allocation space. The military-civilian regulatory coordination mechanism is not yet smooth, cross-departmental and regional collaboration efficiency is low, and flight declaration procedures are complex and lengthy, unable to meet high-frequency, routine flight demands. Some pilot cities have gained management rights for airspace below 600 meters, but the scope is limited, and market-oriented allocation mechanisms are not established, leading to supply-demand mismatches that restrict application scenarios and industry scale expansion.

Market supply and demand mismatch and incomplete commercial cycles hinder sustainable industry development. On the supply side, some companies follow the trend blindly, focusing on complete aircraft manufacturing while neglecting core component development, resulting in low-level duplication and insufficient industry chain synergy. On the demand side, mature application scenarios are limited; manned low-altitude flights and urban air mobility are still in pilot stages, with market demand not fully released.

While logistics, urban inspection, and other scenarios are applied, large-scale, commercial operation models are immature, with companies struggling to profit and overly reliant on government subsidies, lacking autonomous revenue generation. Additionally, new infrastructure like low-altitude takeoff and landing points and intelligent networking is insufficient, and shared resource mechanisms are lacking, leading to repeated construction and resource waste, which hampers large-scale routine flights. High-quality talent gaps are significant in aerospace engineering and airspace management, with university curricula disconnected from industry needs, and industry-education integration shallow, making talent cultivation difficult to match industry development.

Two Sessions proposals: building a safety bottom line, focusing on battery and certification gaps

During the 2026 National Two Sessions, representatives and committee members proposed ideas for规范 development of the low-altitude economy, forming a systematic development approach centered on safety, technology,制度保障, and market orientation, providing important guidance for shifting from rapid expansion to high-quality growth.

Safety governance is the industry’s lifeline; representatives emphasized “regulation is necessary to enable freedom.” Wu Renbiao, a National People’s Congress deputy, suggested clarifying local government responsibilities, accelerating the establishment of independent law enforcement “air traffic police” teams to curb illegal flights; strengthening corporate主体责任, requiring manufacturers’ leaders to accumulate flight hours on self-developed aircraft as a condition for airworthiness certification, thereby embedding safety concepts throughout the process.

Simultaneously, a military-civilian collaborative regulatory platform should be established, a unified national low-altitude navigation chart created, and one-stop intelligent approval implemented. The approach should follow principles like “cargo first, then passengers; suburban areas before urban centers; isolation first, then integration,” gradually expanding airspace while maintaining safety.

In recent years, leveraging the advantages of drone and general aviation industries and favorable policies, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area’s low-altitude economy has flourished. Photo source: Xinhua News Agency

Core technological breakthroughs and industry chain optimization are key supports for high-quality development. NPC deputy He Xiaopeng proposed that the state lead the formulation of a medium- and long-term special plan for low-altitude power batteries, establish a national major science and technology project for advanced power systems for low-altitude aircraft, and gather enterprises, universities, and research institutes to jointly tackle key issues.

Additionally, industry and national standards should be improved and aligned with international standards, with increased support for domestic innovation, the layout of national technological innovation centers, and focus on “bottleneck” areas like flight control chips. Small and medium-sized enterprises should be guided to deepen core component development; certification procedures should be simplified, new standards for low-altitude aircraft established, approval cycles shortened, and technological achievements accelerated for commercialization.

Deputy Li Liangbin also pointed out that traditional batteries cannot support large-scale low-altitude transportation, emphasizing the need to focus on breakthroughs in low-altitude dedicated power battery technology to address power system shortcomings.

Activating market demand and完善商业闭环 are crucial for sustainable industry growth. Wu Renbiao suggested leveraging government procurement to stimulate demand, promoting multi-scenario adaptability of aircraft, integrated management platforms, and “one machine for multiple uses,” prioritizing mature scenarios like logistics and emergency rescue, and building low-altitude flight corridors in urban clusters to develop replicable and promotable models.

Deputy Zhou Shuguang summarized the industry’s “affordable, usable, and sustainable” challenges, recommending learning from related industry development experiences to reduce costs and guide companies away from reliance on subsidies, enhancing autonomous profitability.

Infrastructure development should proceed steadily and slightly ahead of demand, integrating low-altitude takeoff and landing points and intelligent networking into new infrastructure planning. NPC deputy Xia Yong suggested accelerating the construction of low-altitude intelligent networks, integrating 5G, BeiDou, and other technologies to create intelligent control systems, enabling millisecond-level early warning and full-domain supervision, supporting large-scale industry development.

In talent cultivation, Wu Renbiao proposed prioritizing training through civil aviation and aerospace universities, exploring “3+3” undergraduate-master’s integrated programs, and controlling the pace of related professional applications to avoid resource mismatch. Currently, the talent gap in low-altitude economy is large, with issues like lagging discipline setup and shallow industry-education integration. Promoting deep industry-education融合 and building diverse talent training systems are necessary to provide high-quality personnel for industry growth.

Regarding legal保障, CPPCC member Lü Hongbing suggested accelerating specialized legislation for the low-altitude economy, adopting a促进行法 model, clarifying airspace ownership by the state, and embedding safety as a guiding principle throughout legislation. Supporting regulations and rules should be implemented to establish a coordinated, internationally aligned standard system.

[References]

① National People’s Congress deputy Wu Renbiao: Safety is the bottom line of low-altitude economy; elimination race is coming. 21st Century Business Herald. 2026-03-10.

② Ministry of Public Security announces typical cases of law enforcement against illegal drone “black flights.” China Daily. 2026-02-04.

③ Trillion-dollar new track still lacking a strong push. Economic Daily. 2026-03-12.

④ 2026 Two Sessions tone-setting: The night before low-altitude economy takes off, there is more than “hot anticipation,” but also “cold reflection.” China City News. 2026-03-11.

⑤ Wu Renbiao: The low-altitude economy must be sustainable, not always relying on government subsidies. Southern Metropolis Daily. 2026-03-10.

⑥ How will the low-altitude economy, as an emerging pillar industry, overall take off? People’s Post and Telecommunications. 2026-03-12.

⑦ CPPCC member Lü Hongbing calls for faster legislation to end “wild growth” of low-altitude economy. Xinmin Evening News. 2026-03-04.