Author: Research Department of Buckhaus World Low-Altitude Economy Industry Network
Report Date: December 31, 2025
Abstract
In 2025, the global low-altitude economy industry has officially entered a critical tough phase of transformation from technology verification to large-scale commercial application, with the industrial development focus shifting from "exploration of technical feasibility" to "realization of commercial value". The global competitive landscape is undergoing accelerated restructuring, and the trend of regional development differences and collaborative coexistence has become increasingly evident. Based on the actual development of the global low-altitude economy industry in 2025, this report comprehensively sorts out the overall industrial development status, market scale and growth momentum, deeply analyzes the development characteristics of core carriers, technological breakthroughs, policy supervision, application scenarios and industrial ecology, systematically interprets the development trends and core layouts of major regions including China, the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, accurately identifies the core challenges facing the industry, and predicts the industrial development trends in 2026 and the coming period. Integrating global industrial data, enterprise dynamics, policy documents and industry practice cases, the report provides a comprehensive, accurate and professional industrial reference for government departments, enterprise entities, investment institutions and scientific research institutes, helping them seize industrial development opportunities, address industry development challenges and promote the high-quality and standardized development of the global low-altitude economy industry.
Core conclusions of this report: The global low-altitude economy market scale maintained a high-speed expansion in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 17% expected in the next five years; China took the leading position in the world with a market scale of 1.5 trillion RMB. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) have become the two core carriers of industrial development, with the former realizing large-scale application and the latter entering a critical period of airworthiness certification and gradually launching commercial pilots. Policy guidance, technological breakthroughs, scenario explosion and capital empowerment have become the four core driving forces for industrial transformation; countries are accelerating the improvement of regulatory frameworks to seize the commanding heights of industrial development. Relying on policy opening advantages, a complete industrial chain foundation and rich application scenarios, China has formed prominent advantages in global competition, with industrial clusters such as the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta leading the development. Despite the rapid industrial development momentum, problems such as bottlenecks in endurance and load capacity, long airworthiness certification cycles and insufficient density of infrastructure still restrict the process of large-scale commercial application. As the "first year of normal operation", the industry will officially shift from "policy-driven" to "performance realization" in 2026, with infrastructure first, B-end scenarios as a priority, and equal emphasis on standards and safety becoming the core development trends.
1. Introduction
1.1 Research Background
The low-altitude economy is a new economic form that takes low-altitude airspace as the support, low-altitude flight activities as the core, integrates various industrial fields such as aviation manufacturing, aviation operation, airspace management, information technology and infrastructure, and forms a complete industrial chain covering "R&D - manufacturing - operation - service". It is an important extension of the aviation economy and also a core growth pole of strategic emerging industries in the future. The development of the low-altitude economy has broken the limitations of traditional airspace utilization, promoted the extension of human activity space from the ground and water to low altitudes, reconstructed the development models of transportation and logistics, emergency rescue, urban governance, agricultural production and other fields, and spawned a brand-new industrial ecology and business opportunities.
In recent years, with the continuous breakthroughs of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, new energy and new materials, the performance of low-altitude flight equipment has been continuously improved, costs have gradually decreased, and the safety, reliability and convenience of low-altitude flight have been significantly improved, laying a solid foundation for the transformation of the low-altitude economy from technology verification to large-scale commercial application. At the same time, countries around the world have realized the strategic value of the low-altitude economy, have successively incorporated it into national development strategies, issued a series of supportive policies, accelerated the construction of a low-altitude flight regulatory framework, promoted the opening of low-altitude resources, cultivated application scenarios, and stimulated the vitality of industrial development.
2025, as a crucial year for the transformation of the global low-altitude economy industry, has witnessed many new characteristics and trends in industrial development: at the technical level, continuous breakthroughs have been made in core fields such as power systems, intelligent flight control and air traffic management technologies, breaking the technical bottlenecks of commercial application; at the market level, the application scenarios of UAVs have been continuously expanded, the order scale of eVTOL has grown rapidly, and capital layout has extended from complete machine manufacturing to the upper and lower reaches; at the policy level, the regulatory policies of various countries have been gradually improved, the scope of airspace opening pilots has been continuously expanded, providing institutional guarantees for industrial development; at the competition level, major global economies have accelerated their layout, forming a tripartite competitive landscape among China, the United States and Europe, and the effect of regional industrial clusters has become increasingly prominent.
Against this background, systematically sorting out the development status of the global low-altitude economy industry in 2025, analyzing the pain points and opportunities of industrial development, and predicting the future development trends are of important practical and strategic significance for promoting the coordinated development of the global low-altitude economy industry and enhancing the core competitiveness of the industry.
1.2 Research Significance
1.2.1 Theoretical Significance
Based on the actual development of the global low-altitude economy industry in 2025, this report comprehensively integrates industrial development data, policy documents, enterprise dynamics and industry cases, sorts out the industrial development context, analyzes the industrial development laws, improves the theoretical system of low-altitude economy industry research, and fills some gaps in the current global annual industrial reports on the low-altitude economy. At the same time, through the comparative analysis of the industrial development models and layout differences of different countries and regions, it summarizes the common characteristics and personalized experience of industrial development, provides new perspectives and ideas for the research on the low-altitude economy industry, and promotes academic research and theoretical innovation in related fields.
1.2.2 Practical Significance
For government departments, this report fully presents the development status and policy orientation of the global low-altitude economy industry, interprets the regulatory frameworks and industrial support policies of various countries, provides a reference basis for China and other countries around the world to formulate low-altitude economy industrial development plans, improve the regulatory system and optimize the direction of policy support, helping government departments accurately grasp the industrial development trend and enhance industrial governance capacity.
For enterprise entities, this report deeply analyzes the core technological breakthroughs, application scenario demands, market competition pattern and future development trends of the industry, accurately identifies industrial development opportunities and challenges, provides decision support for enterprises to formulate R&D strategies, production plans, market layout and business model innovation, helping enterprises enhance core competitiveness and seize the commanding heights of industrial development.
For investment institutions, this report comprehensively sorts out the capital layout trend of the industry, analyzes the investment value and development potential of each link of the industrial chain, provides professional reference for investment institutions to select high-quality investment projects, optimize investment portfolios and control investment risks, helping investment institutions seize industrial investment opportunities and realize capital appreciation.
For scientific research institutes, this report systematically summarizes the core technological breakthroughs and technological development trends of the global low-altitude economy industry in 2025, clarifies the key directions of industrial technological research, provides a reference for scientific research institutes to carry out technological R&D and industry-university-research cooperation, and helps promote core technological breakthroughs and enhance the technological innovation capacity of the industry.
1.3 Research Scope and Methods
1.3.1 Research Scope
The research scope of this report covers the entire industrial chain of the global low-altitude economy industry, including core technology R&D, low-altitude flight equipment manufacturing (UAVs, eVTOL, etc.), airspace management, infrastructure construction, operation services, supporting industries (batteries, flight control systems, materials, etc.) and other links; the research regions cover major global economies, including China, the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, etc., with a focus on analyzing the industrial development trends and core layouts of each region; the research objects include government departments, enterprise entities, scientific research institutes, investment institutions and relevant industry associations in the global low-altitude economy field.
The data statistics and analysis of this report mainly focus on the development of the global low-altitude economy industry in 2025, with some historical data (2024 and before) used for comparative analysis of industrial growth momentum, and some forecast data (2026 and after) used for predicting the future development trends of the industry. The data sources include government statistical data, industry association reports, enterprise public data, scientific research institute research results and authoritative media reports. ....
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