A skydiver descends at Chongqing Longxing Airport, the city's first urban skydiving base. (Photo/Chongqing Daily)
Chongqing - After three years of targeted development, Chongqing is rapidly expanding its low-altitude economy, integrating drones and aerial technologies into public services and commercial sectors as China accelerates growth in this emerging industry.
As of April 30, Chongqing had developed around 20 low-altitude application scenarios in infrastructure inspection, logistics, tourism, and agriculture. The city has approved 47 airspace zones, established 51 temporary takeoff and landing sites, opened 26 visual flight routes, and achieved low-altitude airspace coverage across 92.78% of its administrative area.
Drone inspections boost efficiency in urban infrastructure
Drone deployment has significantly improved rail transit inspections. A fully automated inspection of a 27-kilometer stretch of Metro Line 6 now takes just 10 minutes.
Previously reliant on manual inspections—often costly, labor-intensive, and incomplete—the drone system now covers nearly 180 kilometers across multiple lines, including Lines 5 and 6, the Loop Line, and the Bishan–Tongliang Line, forming an integrated “air-ground-rail” monitoring system.
The integrated drone monitoring system can detect more than 30 types of hazards and enables emergency response within 30 minutes. Inspection costs per kilometer have fallen by 31.6%, efficiency has increased 16-fold, and hazard detection time has been reduced from hours to under 10 minutes. Unauthorized drone activity along the tracks has also declined by over 60%.
Beyond rail, drone applications have expanded into urban management, bridge inspection, power grid maintenance, and emergency response.
With a fleet of over 380 professional drones, the city can conduct high-rise fire reconnaissance within 10 minutes, reducing response time by 30%. In addition, 11 automated drone stations monitor 50 high-risk geological sites daily, increasing observation frequency tenfold and improving data collection efficiency more than twentyfold.
Aerial medical logistics improve emergency response
Chongqing has also built an aerial logistics network for medical supplies to address the challenges posed by its mountainous terrain.
The network currently includes 18 delivery routes, enabling the transport of blood products, emergency medicines, and test samples within approximately 20 minutes—improving delivery efficiency by more than 50%.
In one recent case, Xinqiao Hospital received emergency detoxification drugs via drone in just 17 minutes for a patient suffering from pesticide poisoning. The route, launched in March 2025, was the city’s first dedicated drone-based medical delivery service.
It now serves six hospitals, completing around 300 flights and covering nearly 4,000 kilometers in total, with delivery times reduced by more than 56%. Authorities plan to add another 10 to 15 routes this year to further expand the network.
Low-altitude tourism fuels consumer spending
Low-altitude tourism is becoming a significant contributor to local consumption, generating nearly 4 billion yuan in related spending.
A flagship project is the skydiving program at Chongqing Longxing Airport, which has attracted more than 4,000 visitors since its launch in April 2025, generating close to 10 million yuan in revenue and increasing airport passenger traffic by 40%.
Drone light shows have also gained popularity, with more than 80 performances staged. The largest event deployed 11,787 drones, drawing over 10 million spectators and generating more than 40 million yuan in revenue.
Other offerings—including helicopter sightseeing, over-water flights, and high-altitude skydiving—are gaining traction. Projects such as hot-air balloon experiences in Liangping, karst landscape tours in Wulong, and aerial routes over Changshou Lake are extending tourism growth beyond the urban core into surrounding districts.
Smart agriculture reshapes rural productivity
Drone technology is also transforming agriculture by covering the full production cycle, from seeding and fertilization to crop protection and harvesting.
In Liangping District, a single drone can fertilize one mu (about 0.165 acre) of farmland in minutes—more than 100 times faster than manual labor. According to Deng Zhong, head of the Chongqing Jieliang Agricultural Machinery Cooperative, one drone can carry over 50 kilograms of fertilizer and cover up to 300 mu (about 49.4 acres) per day under favorable conditions.
The cooperative operates more than 20 drones across Liangping and neighboring areas. In 2026 alone, it supported rice transplanting on over 8,000 mu (about 1,318 acres) and fertilization on more than 23,000 mu (about 3,790 acres).
The rapid adoption of drone technology offers a glimpse into how low-altitude applications are reshaping both urban governance and rural productivity across Chongqing. As drones move from pilot projects to everyday infrastructure, the question is no longer whether they can fly — but how far they can scale.
(Wanqing Lu, as an intern, also contributed to the report.)