In recent years, as low-altitude flights have been increasingly utilized, the low-altitude economy has rapidly integrated into various industries, leading to a significant expansion of the market and attracting growing attention.

As a strategic emerging industry, the low-altitude economy encompasses both traditional general aviation formats and low-altitude production and services supported by drones. The general aviation (including drones) industry serves as a vital engine for the development of the low-altitude economy.

In the 2024 National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (Two Sessions), "low-altitude economy" was included in the government work report for the first time, resulting in the issuance of related policies and further enhancing the certainty of industry development. "Low-altitude flight" is now fully integrating into production and people's daily life, opening up a new trillion-yuan-level market.

As a pilot province for low-altitude airspace management reform, Anhui Province in China has seized the opportunity and accelerated the layout of the low-altitude economy development. The latest statistics show that in 2023, Anhui had established 54 low-altitude pilot airspaces, opened 43 low-altitude air routes, with general aviation aircraft flying nearly 9,700 hours and drones flying 1.44 million hours.

According to the Anhui Provincial Department of Transportation, Anhui Province has gathered over 300 companies, including Anhui General Aviation Holdings Group, CETC Diamond Aircraft Manufacture, Ehang Intelligent Technology, and Yingliu Aviation, forming an industrial pattern with Hefei and Wuhu as dual cores and support from points such as Anqing, Lu'an, and Xuancheng. The scale of the low-altitude economy has already exceeded 40 billion yuan.

Currently, there are three operational general airports in the province; six general airports are under construction, and preliminary work for over 20 general airports is progressing in an orderly manner.

According to the research report on the development of China's low-altitude economy (2024) published by CCID Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on April 1, the scale of China's low-altitude economy reached 505.95 billion yuan in 2023, with a growth rate of 33.8%. It is optimistically estimated that by 2026, the scale of the low-altitude economy is expected to exceed one trillion yuan.

Source: anhuinews.com