As night falls, the Huangpu River turns into a flowing neon painting. A sightseeing helicopter slowly flies over the river, and passengers overlook the Bund through the portholes, where light and shadow pour down like a galaxy - this is no longer a science fiction scene, but a daily glimpse of Shanghai's "Sky City" plan. On January 4, 2026, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology and six other departments jointly issued the "Several Measures for Shanghai to Link the Yangtze River Delta and Accelerate the Construction of Advanced Manufacturing Clusters for Low altitude Economy", announcing that by 2028, the core industry scale of Shanghai's low altitude economy will exceed 80 billion yuan, targeting the "world eVTOL capital".

From policy to industrial chain

This latest policy clarifies the overall goal of Shanghai's low altitude economic development: by 2028, a complete industrial chain system for low altitude new aircraft will be formed, and an advanced manufacturing cluster for low altitude economic countries will be established. The document proposes four major directions and sixteen specific measures, covering R&D and manufacturing funding support, industrial ecosystem construction, and coordinated development of the Yangtze River Delta.

Shanghai did not start from scratch. Relying on the aviation engineering and electronic technology talents and supply chain accumulated from national projects such as the C919 aircraft, Shanghai has a solid industrial foundation. At present, the city has opened a total of 45 logistics transportation routes, 3 urban distribution routes, 14 passenger routes, and 4 sightseeing routes, covering multiple fields such as fresh food transportation, medical distribution, and urban sightseeing.

Application scenarios have entered daily life

At Yangpu Fuxing Island Flight Base, citizens can take a helicopter to overlook the skyline of Lujiazui from the air; In Jing'an District, cargo drones can cross high-rise buildings in just 6 minutes and complete a 2-kilometer cross park delivery; Fengxian District has opened a regular unmanned aerial vehicle medical route, achieving rapid delivery of emergency supplies through the 5G-A network.

In July 2025, the East China (including the Yangtze River Delta) Low altitude Economic Industry Alliance was established in Shanghai, jointly building an industrial cluster with seven provincial pilot zones and multiple universities. Shanghai has simultaneously laid out six low altitude testing matrices, including urban scene bases, island unmanned aerial vehicle bases, 5G-A/Beidou testing bases, etc., forming a diverse and complementary testing system.

The dilemma of airspace and digital disruption

As an international metropolis, Shanghai's airspace resources are highly scarce. Pudong and Hongqiao airports overlap military airspace, with less than 50% of the actual airspace available for low altitude flights. To this end, Shanghai is breaking through the situation through technological means - Fengxian District has built a 5G-A low altitude network covering the entire area, combined with the emergency communication vehicle integrating communication and sensing, to build a "sky and earth network" level communication guarantee.

According to the plan, Shanghai will construct specialized takeoff and landing sites, low altitude intelligent networking systems and other infrastructure in a graded and classified manner, cultivate and attract 10 leading enterprises in eVTOL, unmanned aerial vehicles and other aircraft, and form a mass production capacity of over 500 new aircraft. The policy will also support the joint construction of innovation consortia by enterprises and universities, with a maximum funding support of 20 million yuan. Keywords: Latest news on new infrastructure, news on low altitude economy

By 2028, when the 80 billion yuan industrial blueprint becomes a reality, Shanghai's sky will no longer be just the territory of birds and airplanes, but a three-dimensional economic new space that connects the Yangtze River Delta and empowers various industries.Editor/Yang Meiling