The Year of the Drone: A Full-Scale Industry Boom Ushers in the “Golden Decade” of the Low-Altitude Economy

If 2024 is considered the inaugural year of the low-altitude economy, then 2025 marks the “year of explosive growth.” With the low-altitude economy now officially identified as a strategic pillar of national economic development, provincial governments are rapidly deploying infrastructure, state-owned enterprises are actively entering the field, and private enterprises are thriving. From the outset, the low-altitude economy has surged forward with unstoppable momentum—like a spring breeze sweeping through the land, bringing thousands of blossoms overnight.

Policy Breakthroughs

At the national level, policies such as Management Conditions for Civil Aircraft, the Private Enterprise Promotion Law, and the Consumption Stimulus Plan have been introduced, and the low-altitude economy has been written into the State Council's Government Work Report, reflecting its strategic positioning. A new Department for Low-Altitude Economy Development has been established to guide the industry, crack down on illegal drone operations, and build a regulated, orderly ecosystem for flight operations and industry development.

Airspace reform is accelerating, with increasing approvals for local airspace usage, paving the way for wider airspace accessibility in the low-altitude sector.

Educational reforms are also underway: universities are establishing programs focused on the low-altitude economy and drone applications, providing essential intellectual support for industry growth.

Drone-related occupations have been incorporated into the national list of recognized trades and vocational skillsets, including technician and engineer roles. More government agencies are beginning to recruit talent for drone-related roles.

At the local level, many government work reports now include low-altitude economy plans, promoting the development of industrial parks, formulating industry policies, launching incentive programs, and establishing state-owned development companies for large-scale infrastructure projects. In 2025, reforms in the low-altitude field are accelerating. Cities like Shenzhen and Hefei are among the first to designate exclusive drone airspaces and implement a “negative list + whitelist” regulatory model. Flight approvals can now be processed through digital platforms with response times as short as a few minutes. Meanwhile, Beijing and Shanghai have launched Urban Air Mobility (UTM) pilot programs, planning over 200 dedicated drone logistics routes.

Breakthroughs in Technological R&D

Major breakthroughs are being achieved in drone technology across endurance, swarm control, and specialized applications:

• Endurance: Hydrogen fuel cell drones have achieved flight endurance exceeding 12 hours—an increase of 300% over 2020 levels. In Inner Mongolia, these drones are now used for wind farm inspections, covering more than 100 kilometers in a single day.

• Swarm Control: On Chinese New Year's Eve, Shenzhen set a new Guinness World Record with a 5,000-drone light show. Using 5G and BeiDou integrated positioning, centimeter-level synchronized control of thousands of drones was realized.

• Smart Agriculture: In Xinjiang cotton fields, plant protection drones equipped with multispectral AI recognition systems can automatically distinguish between healthy crops and areas affected by pests or disease. These drones operate at 80 times the efficiency of manual labor while reducing pesticide use by 40%.

Explosion of Application Scenarios

Drones are rapidly replacing traditional methods in aerial photography, agricultural spraying, mountainous PV transport, power line inspections, emergency response, and firefighting. Much like smartphones or automobiles, drones are becoming an integral part of daily work and life. As the industry enters its golden decade, it is projected that the low-altitude economy will exceed ¥1.5 trillion in 2025, with a talent gap of over one million professionals.

• Last-Mile Logistics
  SF Express, in partnership with Aerospace Times Electronics, launched the “Hongyan 300” logistics drone. With a 50 kg payload and a 500 km range, it is already in trial operation on a high-altitude route between Qinghai and Sichuan.

• Digital Agriculture’s “Unmanned Revolution”
  XAG has introduced an “AI Cotton Field Management System,” integrating drones with satellite remote sensing to fully automate cotton sowing, fertilization, and harvesting. In Xinjiang, this has reduced farmers' labor costs by 80%.

• Urban Governance’s “Aerial Patrol”
  Hangzhou has deployed drone “traffic officers” that automatically detect illegal parking and high-rise littering, reducing response time to just 5 minutes.

• Environmental Monitoring’s “Sky-Eye Network”
  The Yangtze River ecological protection project has deployed 500 water-quality monitoring drones to detect pollution sources in real time and transmit data directly to environmental authorities.

Entering the Low-Altitude Economy: Certification Is a Must

In today’s challenging job market, where competition is fierce and salaries are declining, many are unemployed due to a lack of technical skills. Getting certified as a drone pilot and mastering this technology offers a path to career transformation. With the low-altitude economy becoming a trillion-yuan industry, drone piloting has emerged as a promising new career path.