“Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily”, April 27 — Low-altitude economic development is gradually accelerating, and related planning and layout are also gradually spreading to infrastructure, applications, etc. The recent implementation of various “low-altitude economy +” application scenarios has further stimulated people's attention to the low-altitude economy application side. So at this point, what application scenarios have been spawned by the low-altitude economy? What is the current state of the various scenarios?

Chongqing will host the first Chongqing Low Altitude Flight Consumption Week from April 30 to May 5. This is the first time in the country that a low-altitude flight consumption themed event will be held at the provincial level. Chongqing will release the city's first low-altitude flight consumption map, issue the city's first batch of low-altitude flight vouchers, and open the first urban air traffic route, etc., to promote the transformation of low-altitude flight programs from “niche experience” to “mass consumption.”

Low-altitude flight consumption formats launched by Chongqing this time include: low-altitude flight sports represented by paragliding, delta wing, and parachuting; low-altitude sightseeing experiences represented by lightweight fixed-wing, helicopters, and hot air balloons; and low-altitude education services represented by aircraft driving training and low-altitude research.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism's official account “Voice of Cultural Tourism” published “Low Altitude+Tourism: New Momentum for Tourism Development on the New Track of the Low-Altitude Economy” on the 24th. As mentioned in the article, the Huangshan Scenic Area has begun exploring drone transportation materials, and the Dwarf Village Scenic Area in Xiangxi, Hunan is carrying out flight demonstrations for a low-altitude tour project.

On April 24, the “Qiongguang Drone Public Cargo Logistics First Cross-Sea Flight Ceremony” was held at Wenchang International Space City. The FP-98 “Leo” large drone took off from Jiazi Airport in Haikou, Hainan Province, and landed at Lianzhou Airport in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province. The flight range was 500 kilometers. The transportation time of less than 3 hours was 9 hours shorter than the traditional mode of transportation.

On the same day, Guangzhou's Huangpu Comprehensive Insurance Zone completed direct drone delivery of imported goods from cross-border e-commerce. This is also the first direct drone delivery service for cross-border e-commerce imported goods by the national customs.

▌“ Low Altitude Economy+N”: What are the potential development trends of various application scenarios?

According to a comprehensive brokerage research report, application scenarios for which the low-altitude economy has now been commercialized include logistics, tourism, agriculture, urban management, transportation, etc.

Among them, the Chongqing Consumer Week mentioned above and the exploration of Huangshan Scenic Area are all “low-altitude economy+tourism.” Dongwu Securities pointed out that “low-altitude economy+tourism” is expected to become the first application scenario to be implemented. In addition to drones, future tourism, as a priority commercial operation direction for unmanned aerial vehicles (eVTOL), will gradually develop commercial operations, starting with experiential flight and tourism.

“Low-altitude economy+logistics” is currently the most widely used commercial scenario. Currently, Are You Hungry, Meituan, SF Express, JD, etc. have all begun to develop layouts. Compared with traditional logistics distribution methods, unmanned delivery has advantages such as convenience and efficiency, saving labor costs, and reducing safety hazards, and distribution efficiency has been greatly improved.

The “low-altitude economy+urban management” business model has basically worked. Drones have shown broad application prospects in emergency rescue, urban security, electricity inspection, land surveying and mapping, agriculture, forestry, plant protection, and fire protection.

It is worth mentioning that “low-altitude economy+fire” has the advantages of quick response and cluster scheduling, can improve the work efficiency of firefighters, effectively solve the pain points of fire extinguishing in high-rise buildings, and form a beneficial complement to existing fire protection systems. Eair has previously released the world's first fire protection version of the eVTOL. The brokerage firm believes that eVTOL is expected to become an important aerial firefighting equipment and distributed deployment at fire stations in various cities.

Diverse application scenarios have given the low-altitude economy more imagination. So at present, what are the potential development trends of various application scenarios?

According to the April 10 research report of Guolian Securities, judging from the maturity level, the current maturity of various application scenarios may be agriculture, forestry and plant protection > industrial inspection > emergency rescue > police security > surveying and mapping geography > low-altitude tourism > logistics and transportation > urban transportation.

Analysts believe that in terms of the medium term (2030) market size, geographical surveying, aerial photography, agriculture, forestry and plant protection have relatively large potential for development;

From the perspective of expanding application scenarios, basic applications of geographical surveying and emergency rescue are relatively mature, and the short-term market is facing a certain ceiling, but it is expected that application scenarios will be expanded in the future as products develop;

Looking at the long-term space, the express logistics and urban transportation sectors themselves have high market demand, and the application of the low-altitude economy in these two major scenarios may depend on supply-side product developments.