The low-altitude economy encompasses aviation activities at altitudes below 3,000 meters — both crewed and uncrewed — as a core, radiating into cross-sector integrated development. China’s low-altitude economy has featured in the government work report three consecutive years; the 2026 report explicitly lists it as a new pillar industry in the “15th Five-Year Plan” cultivation priorities. The CAAC, MIIT, and other ministries have intensively issued low-altitude airspace management regulations, marking the sector’s transition from “policy window” to “industry acceleration” phase.
## Industry Chain Overview
**Upstream: aircraft manufacturing**: eVTOL (EHang — the world’s first eVTOL company to obtain type certification; XPeng AeroHT for flying cars; AutoFlight; Wofei Changkong); drones (DJI — ~70% global industrial drone market share; XAG for agricultural drones); components (motors, ESCs, rotors, batteries from CATL, avionics).
**Midstream: low-altitude infrastructure**: low-altitude sensing networks (radar, ADS-B, BeiDou positioning); UTM low-altitude traffic management systems (flight control platforms, route planning, conflict warning); landing infrastructure (Vertiports, charging/swapping stations); communications networks (5G low-altitude coverage, satellite communications for remote areas).
**Downstream: low-altitude applications**: logistics delivery (Meituan drones now commercially operating in Beijing and Shenzhen; SF Express for remote area last-mile; JD Logistics); agricultural services (precision spraying, seeding, inspection); infrastructure inspection (power lines, oil pipelines, forest fire prevention); urban air mobility (airport transfers, scenic area tourism — EHang commercially operating at multiple locations); emergency response (supply delivery, search and rescue).
## Market Scale and Outlook
China’s low-altitude economy market is projected to grow from approximately RMB 500 billion in 2023 to over RMB 2 trillion by 2030 (CAAC projection), driven by progressive airspace opening (simplified flight filing procedures), maturing commercial models (logistics delivery and agricultural protection now at scale), and accelerating eVTOL certification (EHang, AutoFlight entering commercialization).
See [eVTOL Urban Air Mobility](https://sunqi.org/evtol-urban-air-mobility-en/) and [China CAAC low-altitude policy](http://www.caac.gov.cn/).
