Recently, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) officially expressed its support for Shenzhen's establishment of a national industry comprehensive demonstration zone for low-altitude economy. It authorized Shenzhen to further improve its industrial development service system and actively conduct research and pilot projects in low-altitude logistics, urban air transportation, and other fields to expand low-altitude application scenarios. This decision has opened up new horizons for the development of Shenzhen's low-altitude industries.
In recent years, Shenzhen has made comprehensive efforts in low-altitude economy, a new market segment, leading the nation in the scale of low-altitude flight operations. Taking unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as an example, after more than 20 years of development, Shenzhen has gathered a group of industry-leading enterprises such as DJI, Phoenix-Wings, Autel Robotics, and Skyeagle Equipment, with a world-leading completeness of the industrial chain.
From the perspective of consumer-grade applications, manufacturers such as DJI have become the main providers of consumer-grade UAVs globally. They are leading enterprises in the UAV field. From the perspective of industrial-grade applications, the output value of Shenzhen's industrial-grade civil UAVs accounts for about 60% of the national total. The city is home to dozens of industrial-grade UAV manufacturers such as AEE and MicroMultiCopter.
Public data shows that in 2023, the annual output value of Shenzhen's low-altitude industry exceeded 90 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20%. In the same year, Shenzhen opened 77 new UAV routes, built 73 new UAV takeoff and landing points, and completed 600,000 flights of cargo UAVs, ranking first in flight scale nationwide. Consumer-grade UAVs accounted for 70% of the global market share, and industrial-grade UAVs accounted for 50% of the global market share. Helicopter flights exceeded 20,000 flights, leading the nation in flight scale.
On February 27, 2024, the "Demonstration Flight of eVTOL Cross-city Cross-bay Routes and the Signing Ceremony of Fēngfēi Aviation Landing in Shenzhen" was held at the Shekou Cruise Terminal in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, exploring new scenarios for low-altitude manned transportation in urban air transportation.
In recent years, Shenzhen has been continuously exploring and advancing in the expansion of low-altitude economic application scenarios. Shenzhen actively supports general aviation enterprises in conducting commercial operations for manned air transportation. In 2023, helicopter flights reached 23,000 flights, leading the nation in flight scale.
In addition, new UAV applications such as low-altitude logistics, instant delivery, urban governance, and public services have emerged and begun to prosper. Statistics show that by the end of 2023, relying on Meituan's UAVs for instant delivery and Phoenix-Wings's low-altitude logistics networks, Shenzhen's annual cargo UAV flights reached 610,000 flights.
Source: Yangcheng Evening News
