Flying start for low-altitude economy goals as 100 drone projects proposed

2026.03.21 09:50 The low-altitude economy is an emerging sector focused on activities such as drone use in airspace below 1km. Photo: Nora Tam Hong Kong authorities have received more than 100 applications for innovative drone usage to pioneer the city’s “low-altitude economy”, with some pilot projects set to launch as early as in three months, the transport minister has said. Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan also pledged to push more advanced transport technologies to transition from trials to everyday use in 2026. In a blog post on the Transport and Logistics Bureau’s website on Saturday, Chan said “the industry responded enthusiastically” to the government’s calls, with more than 100 submissions received by the end of last month, when applications closed. The low-altitude economy is an emerging sector focused on activities such as drone use in airspace below 1km (3,280 feet). “The [government] working group is reviewing the applications in detail, with the goal of launching pilot projects progressively in the first half of this year,” Chan said. In line with the nation’s development of a low-altitude economy, Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu announced in his policy address in 2024 that a government working group would be set up to foster and facilitate the testing of potential application scenarios for low-altitude flying activities. Promoting “regulatory sandbox” pilot projects was among its major tasks. The sandbox aims to enable the industry to test and conduct trials on some project concepts along predefined air routes and in a controlled and safe manner. It also allows the government to collect data to ensure applications work and meet safety and reliability requirements. Based on the success of the first batch of sandbox projects last year, the government launched a new round of applications under a “regulatory sandbox X” scheme late last year. Applications closed in February. Thirty-eight pilot projects were selected in the first batch, in

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