East China's economic powerhouse propels low-altitude economy boom

NANJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The eastern Chinese economic powerhouse of Jiangsu Province has made significant strides in the burgeoning low-altitude economy, with 324 flight routes already approved, signaling the sector's rapid growth.

According to the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Transportation, the province has already established a well-rounded industrial chain in fields such as unmanned aerial vehicles, aerospace manufacturing and electronic information.

At present, Jiangsu's low-altitude flight routes are primarily focused on fields such as low-altitude tourism, logistics, medical services and aerial transportation.

The low-altitude economy refers to economic activities surrounding both manned and unmanned aircraft typically operating in airspace up to 1,000 meters above the ground.

The province has issued guidelines on accelerating the high-quality development of its low-altitude economy, aiming to take the national lead in scale by 2027 and establish a competitive industrial chain by 2030.

Last year, several cities in Jiangsu, including Suzhou, Wuxi and Nanjing, unveiled three-year development plans for the sector, helping push the province's low-altitude industrial scale to more than 200 billion yuan (about 27.9 billion U.S. dollars).

As China's low-altitude economy takes flight with impressive momentum, the Civil Aviation Administration of China has forecast a significant surge in market value, projecting that the sector will soar from 500 billion yuan in 2023 to 1.5 trillion yuan in 2025, and that it could reach an astounding 3.5 trillion yuan by 2035. ■