ZKBZ Yuhanwen: Low-Altitude Economy Must "Fly Right" – Key Lies in Building a Commercial Closed Loop

Ask AI · How to Achieve Diversified Profitability in the Low-Altitude Economy Business Loop?

China Economic Journalists Lu Bingyang and Sun Lichao Beijing Report

Chief Vice President of CASIC Star Map, President of CASIC LanZhuo, Yu Hanwen. CASIC LanZhuo / Photo

“The low-altitude economy is not a sprint but a long-distance race that requires joint efforts from policy guidance, capital support, technological breakthroughs, and market cultivation. Only when ‘flying high, managing well, using effectively, and earning profit’ form a positive cycle can the low-altitude truly become a new growth pole for China’s economy.” Recently, Yu Hanwen, Senior Vice President of CASIC Star Map Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “CASIC Star Map,” 688568.SH) and President of CASIC LanZhuo (Beijing) Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “CASIC LanZhuo”), shared insights on hot topics such as low-altitude economic application scenarios, industry competition, and technological iteration in an exclusive interview with China Business Journal.

Founded in 2006, CASIC Star Map was listed on the STAR Market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange on July 8, 2020, and is a leading enterprise in China’s aerospace information field. As an innovator in aerospace information technology, integrator of the commercial space industry chain, and promoter of the low-altitude economy industry development, CASIC Star Map aligns with national development strategies, cultivates new productive forces, and adheres to the philosophy of “strengthening from the sky, developing in the air, integrating air and space, and cloud-based foundation.” It promotes the “One Body, Two Wings” product strategy and builds a diversified, collaborative industry development pattern. CASIC LanZhuo, a high-tech enterprise under CASIC Star Map focusing on new-generation radar industrial applications, serves key security industries such as rail transit, civil airports, and specialized fields. Using microwave detection, artificial intelligence, IoT, and other technologies, it has developed a series of security products with fully independent intellectual property rights, including railway sentinel, bridge guardian, intelligent crossing, and tunnel water level monitoring and early warning systems.

Low-Altitude Economy Will Fully Enter Production and Daily Life

The “Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China” (hereinafter “the Outline”) released on March 13 proposes promoting the healthy and orderly development of the low-altitude economy. The Outline also mentions enhancing the precision of low-altitude airspace management, strengthening civil aviation certification capabilities, and improving safety guarantees for low-altitude flight. It advocates legislation in emerging fields such as biomedicine, intelligent driving, and low-altitude economy.

In Yu Hanwen’s view, this statement in the Outline marks a shift of the low-altitude economy from macro guidance to deeper institutional establishment, moving from “policy-driven” to a new stage of “legislation with safeguards.”

Forecasts released at the 2025 China (Jiangxi) Aviation Industry Conference held in November 2025 indicate that China’s low-altitude economy market size will reach 1.5 trillion yuan by 2025, with potential to surpass 2 trillion yuan by 2030. The Civil Aviation Administration of China predicts that by 2035, the market size of China’s low-altitude economy could exceed 3.5 trillion yuan.

Yu Hanwen stated that in the future, application scenarios of the low-altitude economy will cover all aspects of production and life—from urban traffic management, emergency firefighting, and environmental law enforcement to public services like medical supplies delivery, low-altitude cultural tourism experiences, and industrial applications such as safety inspections, dynamic monitoring, and 3D visualization and maintenance of stations. From low-altitude research and learning in kindergartens to intelligent manufacturing and major scientific research, low-altitude economic applications will fully integrate into our daily lives.

Application demonstration of drone flight scenarios by CASIC LanZhuo. CASIC LanZhuo / Photo

Building a Commercial Closed-Loop through Scale, Collaboration, and Diversification

Identifying real demand scenarios is key to sustainable development of the low-altitude economy. Yu Hanwen emphasized that achieving sustainable growth depends not on “flying more,” but on “using correctly”—that is, anchoring on genuine needs to build a replicable, profitable, and scalable business closed-loop. “For an industry to develop long-term from inception to maturity, it must form a closed loop of business scenarios. Our initial focus is on market demand and high-frequency usage scenarios.”

He further explained that first, scenario scale should be expanded—focusing on essential needs such as railways, emergency response, and logistics—by deploying “pilot projects in 10 cities + services in 60 cities” to form an initial scale and reduce unit service costs. Second, ecological collaboration should be strengthened—by partnering with China Tower, geographic information service providers, and others to share infrastructure and data resources, thereby lowering hardware and operational costs. Third, profitability should be diversified—by establishing a revenue model of “hardware sales + platform subscriptions + value-added services,” collecting annual service fees via low-altitude control platforms, and providing data insights and other value-added services to clients, completing the business closed-loop.

By 2025, CASIC Star Map aims to have signed offline agreements in over 20 cities and provided online services in more than 80 cities, outlining a new paradigm for low-altitude economy development. Yu Hanwen cited that in November 2025, CASIC Star Map and Xi’an Yulanlin consortium won a 295 million yuan bid for the digital infrastructure project of Hanzhong’s low-altitude economy. The project will establish flight takeoff and landing points across all nine counties and two districts of the city, aiming to create a “space-earth” digital ecosystem. The project targets the core pain points of low-altitude economy development, connecting “planning—construction—operation—services,” including infrastructure such as low-altitude communication, navigation, surveillance, and countermeasures, as well as subsequent services like route development, aircraft maintenance, and scene operation, enabling the transition from “building well” to “long-term use” in the low-altitude economy.

As the industry rapidly develops, the low-altitude economy also faces risks related to policies, competition, and technological iteration.

Yu Hanwen noted that industry risks mainly involve policy risks, such as airspace application issues and market hesitation regarding policy directions—essentially, concerns about policy uncertainty. Our response is to establish a policy research team to closely monitor the “14th Five-Year Plan” and low-altitude management policies, participate in industry standard-setting, and ensure compliance of our products and services.

“To address industry competition, CASIC Star Map advocates ‘technological differentiation’ to avoid homogenization, focusing on the unique advantages of ‘space-earth information + low-altitude scenarios,’ while expanding competitive scope through ecological cooperation,” Yu Hanwen explained. Regarding technological iteration, leveraging our core strengths in geographic information, we have proactively laid out frontier low-altitude technologies to maintain technical leadership in niche fields, adhering to principles of “usability, reliability, and maintainability,” avoiding pursuit of unengineered cutting-edge tech, so that low-altitude operations are not only “possible,” but also “safe,” “smooth,” and “cost-effective.”

Driving the Rail Transit Intelligent Security Market with the “Space-Earth Integration” New Paradigm

Smart security is one of the key application fields of the low-altitude economy. As a critical national infrastructure, the rail transit sector’s smart security market is enormous.

Yu Hanwen analyzed that, based on industry development, China’s total investment in smart security for rail transit (including national railways and urban rail) has exceeded 130 billion yuan annually. With accelerated new line construction and deepening upgrades of existing lines during the “14th Five-Year Plan,” this market is expected to maintain a steady growth rate of over 10% in the next five years.

Facing this billion-yuan track, CASIC LanZhuo has been strengthening its layout. Yu Hanwen stated that CASIC LanZhuo does not enter as a traditional security vendor but leverages aerospace information to empower a three-dimensional new security paradigm. Its advantages include: first, the “space-earth integration” technological barrier, differentiating from traditional ground-based security; second, scene customization capabilities, with products deeply adapted to complex rail transit environments; third, experience in “three defenses + digital intelligence,” validated in multiple railway projects.

Currently, there are still some barriers in data interoperability between drones, low-altitude aircraft, and rail transit signal and operation management systems. In response, Yu Hanwen said that for low-altitude economy to truly integrate into industry applications, it is necessary to break data silos such as “air-ground islands,” inconsistent standards, semantic differences, and fuzzy security boundaries. CASIC LanZhuo’s approach involves “co-developing standards + architecture decoupling + scenario closed-loop,” promoting cross-industry standard collaboration and building “secure isolated data middle platforms.” Additionally, by driving high-value scenarios and pilot projects, they aim to break down barriers through demonstration applications.

As the industry advances, CASIC LanZhuo’s smart security capabilities are extending from “key infrastructure protection” to “urban public safety services.” Yu Hanwen said that the value of aerospace information and low-altitude intelligent technology not only lies in safeguarding “main arteries” but also benefits “millions of households.” Based on the “high-reliability perception—intelligent analysis—rapid response” technology foundation accumulated in railway security, CASIC LanZhuo plans to transfer core capabilities into urban road management, smart communities, campus, and key site security scenarios.