China’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) has established a dedicated Low-Altitude Safety Department to oversee the safety and commercial development of the country’s low-altitude airspace, according to announcements by the CAAC and Xinhua. The new unit is staffed by 30 people and is responsible for formulating development plans for low-altitude civil aviation, coordinating low-altitude safety and development, and building low-altitude flight service dispatch platforms and flight service station systems.
The move makes the CAAC the second ministry-level body to establish a dedicated low-altitude economy division. In December 2024, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) created a department focused on formulating and organizing the implementation of strategic and mid-to-long-term development plans for the sector. The CAAC’s new unit is designed to translate those macro strategies into operational civil aviation rules, airworthiness certification standards, personnel qualification requirements, and airspace management frameworks.
What the New Department Will Do
Huang Xiaofei, executive president of Shanghai Volant Aerotech, told Caixin that the CAAC’s Low-Altitude Safety Department will “translate macro strategies into civil aviation rules and standards,” accelerating the institutionalization of safety regulation, airworthiness certification, personnel qualifications, and airspace rules. He added that the unit may unify existing task forces to create more efficient certification and approval processes, a significant practical benefit for drone and eVTOL manufacturers who currently navigate fragmented regulatory pathways.
The department’s mandate covers the airspace typically defined as within 1,000 meters above the ground, the operational envelope for the vast majority of commercial drones, air taxis, and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. This is the airspace where China’s low-altitude economy is being built, and it has historically been governed by a patchwork of military and civilian aviation rules that were not designed with commercial drone operations in mind.
A critical regulatory milestone is approaching: from July 1, 2026, drones will be formally classified as aircraft under China’s national aviation law. That reclassification will bring drones under the full scope of civil aviation regulation for the first time, creating both new compliance requirements for operators and new enforcement responsibilities for the CAAC. The new Low-Altitude Safety Department is the institutional mechanism through which the CAAC will discharge those responsibilities.
The Scale of the Opportunity
China’s low-altitude economy has seen rapid growth in recent years. The CAAC projects its market size will exceed 3.5 trillion yuan (approximately $511 billion) by 2035. Guangdong province, which topped the national low-altitude economy development index in 2026, hosts over 2,000 low-altitude aircraft manufacturing enterprises and more than 15,000 supply chain companies. In 2025, Guangdong accounted for 70% of the global consumer drone market and 50% of national industrial drone output.
The sector has been designated as a strategic pillar industry in China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030), alongside AI and quantum technology. It has appeared in the government’s annual work reports for three consecutive years, a signal of sustained political commitment at the highest levels. China’s 15th Five-Year Plan elevates AI to core national infrastructure, and the low-altitude economy is one of the key application domains where AI, robotics, and aviation technology converge.
Infrastructure Is Being Built in Parallel
The CAAC’s new department is being established alongside a broader infrastructure buildout. China’s first Low-Altitude Economy Meteorological Comprehensive Service Platform launched in Dalian this week, co-built by Dalian University of Technology, the Dalian Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, and Huizhou Qingting LAE Development Co. The platform focuses on 3D low-altitude weather monitoring with 1 km resolution for complex urban areas and AI-driven minute-level early warning for wind shear and turbulence, capabilities that are essential for safe commercial drone operations at scale.
Dongguan expanded its UAV fly zones by 135% following a CAAC update to its unmanned operations management (UOM) system, with coverage as a share of total city airspace rising from 19.97% to 47.09%. The expansion applies to drones flying below 120 meters true altitude and is expected to benefit drone logistics, urban inspection, emergency response, and cultural tourism operations.
Regulatory Clarity as a Competitive Advantage
For China’s drone and eVTOL industry, the establishment of a dedicated CAAC department is a positive development even though it brings more regulatory oversight. The industry’s primary constraint is not technology, Chinese manufacturers are globally competitive in both consumer and industrial drone categories, but the absence of clear, stable regulatory pathways for commercial operations. A dedicated department with a mandate to build those pathways is more likely to accelerate the market than to slow it.
The international dimension is also significant. Chinese drone manufacturers are competing for market share in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. A well-developed CAAC low-altitude safety framework can strengthen the credibility of Chinese manufacturers in those markets and support the export of both hardware and regulatory models.