Economic Observer reporter Zheng Chenye

On the evening of October 1st, the "New Charm Chongqing" drone light show was held over the intersection of the two rivers in Chongqing. 5000 drones are changing formations in the night sky, forming images of the Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, Fuxing train, and aerospace themes, attracting many Chinese and foreign tourists to watch by the river.

The person in charge of the flight is Shenzhen Desert Intelligent Control Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Desert Desert"). For the desert, the National Day night light show is just a regular performance. Every weekend and holiday, "New Charm Chongqing" lights up over the two rivers. As of October 4th, it has performed nearly 120 times and attracted over 12.5 million live audiences.

The cooperation between Da Mo Da and Chongqing began with the drone performance at the Chongqing branch of the 2025 Spring Festival Gala. Qin Haiqun, co-founder and deputy general manager of the Great Desert, told Economic Observer reporters that the rehearsal and performance of the Spring Festival Gala have received a lot of attention, and the performance will continue during the Spring Festival period. Chongqing subsequently promoted regular exhibitions and performances, and after the "New Charm Chongqing" premiered in April 2025, the scale gradually expanded to 5000 aircraft.

The Chongqing Municipal Commission of Culture and Tourism Development (hereinafter referred to as "Chongqing Municipal Commission of Culture and Tourism") announced in July this year that "New Charm Chongqing" has achieved zero subsidies from the municipal finance and self balancing of operational investment through special naming, customized exhibitions, air advertising and other methods in accordance with the principle of "government guidance+market leadership+enterprise operation".

The normalized operation of "New Charm Chongqing" is a beneficial exploration of low altitude economy in the field of culture and tourism. But not every low altitude project can achieve a balanced income and expenditure and operate normally like "New Charm Chongqing".

In fact, since May 1st this year, two mandatory national standards for real name registration and operational identification of drones have been implemented, and the newly revised Civil Aviation Law has also been implemented since July 1st, answering the basic rule questions of "who can fly" and "who is flying". At the same time, Hangzhou, Guangzhou Tianhe and other places have successively adjusted or suspended direct subsidies for low altitude economy. The simultaneous increase in safety thresholds, tightening of rules, and reduction of subsidies have sparked controversy and concerns in the market regarding the low altitude economy. The controversy revolves around whether the industry's popularity is ahead of actual demand; The concern lies in whether some projects can continue to operate after completing demonstrations.

However, data released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China in July showed that in the first half of 2026, the total number of drone flights in China reached 26.414 million hours, a year-on-year increase of 8%. In the view of Luo Jun, CEO of Silicon Valley Innovation Technology Co., Ltd. in the Beijing Bay Area, there is an objective demand for trillions of yuan in the low altitude market, and the application scenarios are essential. The real scarcity of low altitude economy lies in open airspace, touchable normalized scenarios, and verifiable business models.

At present, the low altitude economy still has great potential, and many enterprises are seeking new increments in scenarios where they can already operate normally.

I can't fly without it

From an application perspective, low altitude economy can be roughly divided into two categories: industry applications and consumer and emerging applications. Among them, industry applications started earlier.

Li Chao, Deputy Director and spokesperson of the Policy Research Office of the National Development and Reform Commission, stated in December 2025 that scenarios such as agricultural and forestry operations and inspection applications have become relatively mature, and the scale of drone applications continues to expand. As of the end of November 2025, the total mileage of unmanned aerial vehicle power inspection in China exceeds 4 million kilometers, and the number of agricultural unmanned aerial vehicles exceeds 300000.

Specifically for power grid enterprises, public information shows that in 2014, Southern Power Grid Yunnan Power Grid Company only had one inspection drone, but now there are more than 4900 drones and more than 4600 certified pilots. The inspection time per 100 kilometers has been shortened from 20 days to 4 days.

Li Chao proposed to accelerate the exploration and formation of a safe, secure, and commercially sustainable development model.

For the low altitude economy, the normalization scenario refers to the transformation of low altitude flights from demonstration demonstrations and single events to daily operations, with stable budget or revenue to cover operational investment.

Several industry insiders have stated in interviews that the scenarios that can truly support normalized operations in industry applications must be "not flying" in terms of business, rather than "flying is better". If the business does not rely on flight, it is easy to lose the motivation for continuous operation after project completion demonstration and acceptance.

Taking power inspection as an example, Wan Zheyu, an industry application solution engineer at Shenzhen DJI Innovation Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "DJI"), said that before the emergence of drones, inspections had to rely on manual climbing of towers on site, which made personal safety difficult to guarantee and had low efficiency. With a drone, you can fly up and circle around to know if there are any defects.

From the perspective of application depth, the scale and various applications of domestic drones are deeper than those overseas, and some overseas power companies will come to China to learn from them. However, Wan Zheyu also pointed out that there are two main problems with the promotion of drones in the industry under traditional operation methods: firstly, it is necessary to bring drones to the scene. When it comes to geological disaster rescue, it may take half a day to arrive at the scene, and many transmission towers are erected in barren mountains and ridges, which takes a long time on the road. There are very few towers that inspectors can complete in a day; Secondly, there are few professional pilots, and the training period is long. Some government agencies need to build unmanned aerial vehicle teams from scratch, which requires a significant investment of time and funds.

Wan Zheyu stated that DJI has launched a drone airport to solve the problem of carrying drones to the scene and insufficient pilots. With airports, tasks can be remotely assigned, and the takeoff, landing, refueling, and data transmission of drones are automatically completed. People can operate drones thousands of miles away from the office.

The common characteristics of scenarios such as power grid inspection, forest fire prevention, and urban traffic inspection are high frequency, continuous tasks, certain risks, and coverage far beyond human capabilities.

According to the "White Paper on the Development of Low altitude Economic Infrastructure (2026)" released by DJI in May this year, the traffic police department of Futian District, Shenzhen will launch the "air ground joint logistics" service with drones as the core in May 2025. As of January 2026, 65 drone airports have been deployed in the jurisdiction, with an average of one per 1.2 square kilometers, and each drone will patrol for no less than 5 hours per day. After receiving the accident alarm, the drone can automatically fly to the scene for evidence collection, shouting and directing. The entire area can assist in handling at least 30 traffic accidents every day.

The DJI Airport 4, released on October 14th, upgraded the energy replenishment method from "in-situ charging" to "fast battery swapping". The drone can automatically replace the battery after landing, saving time waiting for charging and enabling timely deployment in case of unexpected tasks.

Emergency rescue is also a scenario of 'not flying'.

On August 26 this year, a mudslide disaster occurred on the Nepalese side, and the Jilong Port in Xizang was affected. Rescuers used drones to deliver materials to the core area of the port. According to the relevant staff of DJI, the roads at Jilong Port were interrupted and the silt was deep after the disaster. The dangerous journey that originally required 4 hours of walking took about 1 minute for drones to fly over, delivering food, tents, generators, and communication equipment to the front.

According to the announcement released by the Ministry of Emergency Management on September 4th, the unmanned aerial vehicle emergency cooperation mechanism "Swift Emergency" led by the National Disaster Reduction Center has increased to 294 member units, with more than 5000 sets of unmanned aerial vehicles on standby at any time.

The aforementioned DJI staff stated that DJI and its agents participated in the response as member units, and DJI mainly provides backend technical support, equipment support, and after-sales support; At the rescue site, industry drones are mainly responsible for reconnaissance, while transport drones are responsible for transporting materials. In his opinion, the difficulty of material delivery within the golden 72 hours after a disaster is often not in the "last kilometer", but in the "earliest kilometer".

At present, the deployment of drones in grassroots emergency situations is related to both cost and the reserve of civilian pilots. The reporter learned that helicopters are mostly equipped at the provincial and municipal level, and the cost of deploying them once can be as high as two to three hundred thousand yuan. The single operation cost of carrying drones in DJI is several thousand yuan, and a set of equipment costs tens of thousands of yuan. Some county-level emergency departments can use their own budget to configure it regularly.

With the popularization of agricultural and transportation models in the commercial field, a large number of farmers and operators who can operate drones have also emerged in various villages and towns. They usually make a living from this and can participate in rescue efforts nearby when disasters occur.

Normalized Performance

In terms of consumption and emerging applications, Luo Jun believes that the highly anticipated urban logistics and manned flights are still in the testing and verification stage, and the infrastructure in the air and on the ground needs to be improved. Relevant industry standards and regulations have not yet been introduced, and it will take another two to three years to have the conditions for large-scale promotion.

But the drone performances among them entered normal operation earlier.

According to statistics from market research firm QYResearch, by 2025, the Chinese market will account for over 60% of the total global drone performance equipment; Among the top six global companies, five are Chinese enterprises. In Qin Haiqun's view, domestic drone performances are extending from single events during festivals to regular exhibitions and advertising operations.

The main clients of the performance are brand owners and cultural and tourism departments. Brand owners are concerned about exposure and communication efficiency. Qin Haiqun stated that multiple brands have participated in the "New Charm Chongqing" project, with advertising fees reaching 40 million yuan and performances gradually entering the media procurement list of some enterprises.

The cultural and tourism department is more concerned with attracting tourists, enhancing the city's image, and driving consumption. According to data from the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Culture and Tourism, the online dissemination of "New Charm Chongqing" is about 11 billion times, driving a nearly 30% increase in nighttime consumption in the core area of "Two Rivers and Four Banks".

Qin Haiqun summarized the cooperation between Da Mo Da and the cultural and tourism departments of Datong, Shanxi as "the first cooperation, feedback on results, and continuous procurement". In the summer of 2025, the cultural and tourism department of Datong proposed a performance demand, and the desert dispatched 5000 drones to participate in the performance. After the performance, overnight tourists and scenic area visitors showed good performance, and the local cultural and tourism manager subsequently came to negotiate follow-up projects. During the National Day and Mid Autumn Festival holidays that year, Da Mo Da once again flew to Datong, deploying 8000 drones.

With the accumulation of performance scale and ability, Qin Haiqun believes that in the future, more investment should be put into content, performance form, and special effects innovation. According to a statement released by the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Culture and Tourism in July, "New Charm Chongqing" has also publicly solicited exhibition and performance ideas from around the world, receiving over 1000 entries in total.

Overseas, the desert mainly sells equipment, and performances are organized by buyers themselves. Qin Haiqun explained that the reason for not flying directly locally is due to considerations of customs clearance, battery transportation, and time costs. Da Mo Da has been expanding into overseas markets since 2020, with business currently covering over 50 countries and regions.

Overseas orders are also undergoing changes now. Qin Haiqun said that a German company that originally made LED screens first purchased about 800 drones in the desert in November 2025. After verifying the effectiveness in projects in cold, snowy and other environments, they added about 1000 more at the beginning of this year and ordered another 5000 around July and August. The cooperation between the two sides has also expanded from selling equipment to European agents and maintenance services in Germany. In the past, buyers would first try to purchase 200 to 500 drones and decide whether to repurchase based on their performance.

Tan Haiqun mentioned that overseas buyers are more concerned about usability, automation, labor costs, and local technical services; The domestic market is relatively mature, and the demand for cultural and tourism attractions, on-site performances, and commercial brands is more prominent.

The normalization of drone performances refers to holding long-term performances according to fixed schedules, with expenses borne by naming, advertising, or cultural tourism procurement. In China, regular exhibitions require flight applications according to regulations. The basic rules for civilian drones have been gradually implemented, and two mandatory national standards for real name registration and operational identification, which will be implemented from May 1st, aim to technically solve the problem of "who can fly" and "who is flying" for drones. The newly revised Civil Aviation Law has been implemented since July 1st, enriching the institutional measures to support the development of low altitude economy.

Qin Haiqun believes that the increased requirements for safety, qualifications, and execution processes are conducive to the standardized development of the industry, and the impact on projects in the desert is relatively limited. He said that there are now more application materials and more detailed processes than in the past, but it is common for projects to only apply once every six months or a year. After submitting the materials, the subsequent execution is actually more convenient.

Before and after National Day, some places began to adjust their support methods for low altitude economy.

The Hangzhou Municipal Finance Bureau plans to abolish the "Several Measures to Support the High quality Development of Low altitude Economy in Hangzhou", and the public solicitation of opinions has ended on October 7th. In late September, the Development and Reform Bureau of Tianhe District, Guangzhou also issued a notice to suspend the implementation of the "Several Policy Measures to Accelerate the Promotion of Low altitude Economy and High quality Aerospace Development in Tianhe District, Guangzhou" in order to implement the requirements of fair competition review.

In Luo Jun's view, the adjustment of direct rewards and subsidies in many regions is driven by the construction of a unified large market. Each region is cleaning up targeted rewards and subsidies that may cause local protection and unfair competition, rather than specifically targeting the low altitude economy. He believes that canceling direct subsidies does not mean a weakening of the country's support for the low altitude economy. Policy withdrawal can to some extent force companies to shift their focus from "receiving subsidies" to "improving their internal strength", but investment expectations will tend to be cautious in the short term.

In the future, the low altitude economy will shift from policy driven to system driven, scenario driven, and market driven, and industry competition will also shift from competing on subsidies to competing on ecology, scenarios, safety, and commercial closed loops, "said Luo Jun.