General aviation has gradually become an emerging economic growth point, and the industry has a good development environment
General aviation refers to the use of civil aircraft to engage in civil aviation activities other than public air transport, mainly including operating flights in industry, forestry, etc., as well as flight activities in emergency rescue and disaster relief, meteorological exploration, scientific experiments, education and training, etc.
The general aviation industry chain is long and covers a wide range, which is of great significance for building a modern transportation industry system and cultivating strategic emerging industries. In recent years, the state has issued a number of policies such as the "14th Five-Year Plan" for the Development of General Aviation, the Outline of the Strategic Plan for Expanding Domestic Demand (2022-2035), and the Outline for the Development of Green Aviation Manufacturing Industry (2023-2035) to encourage and support the development of the general aviation industry in the direction of high quality.
From the perspective of the industry as a whole, general aviation is an important part of the low-altitude economy. With the continuous improvement of social infrastructure construction and the continuous progress of aircraft R&D and manufacturing technology, the scale of the mainland's low-altitude economic market has maintained a growth trend in recent years, and is expected to exceed 500 billion yuan in 2024. General aviation has a good development environment.
With the continuous development of the mainland economy, the pace of industrial transformation and upgrading is gradually accelerating, the demand for improving work efficiency in the fields of emergency rescue and disaster relief, weather intervention and other fields is becoming more and more urgent, superimposed on the increasing national disposable income, the continuous upgrading of the consumption structure, the growing demand for flight entertainment and private flight training, and the continuous expansion of the application scope of general aviation, which has gradually become an emerging economic growth point.
According to the "14th Five-Year Plan Development Prospects and Investment Strategic Planning Research Report on the General Aviation Industry" released by the New Thinking Industry Research Center, with the continuous enhancement of the mainland's scientific and technological strength, the continuous increase in policy support, and the increasingly strong downstream demand, the number of general aviation enterprises in the mainland has been increasing in recent years, and the number of registered general aviation aircraft has been growing, and the industry has shown a good development trend. According to the data released by the Civil Aviation Administration, by the end of 2023, there will be 689 general aviation enterprises in the mainland, and 3,173 general aviation aircraft will be registered.
From the perspective of the distribution of general aviation enterprises, affected by the level of economic development and policy support, the current mainland general aviation enterprises are mainly distributed in East China, Central South, North China, Southwest China and other regions. Among them, the number of enterprises in East China accounted for more than 26%, ranking first, the Central and South regions accounted for about 23%, ranking second, and North China accounted for about 20%, ranking third. At this stage, the key enterprises in the continental general aviation industry include AVIC General Aircraft Co., Ltd., Beidahuang General Aviation Co., Ltd., etc.
Industry analysts said that in the future, with the continuous improvement of low-altitude flight infrastructure construction, the continuous progress of manufacturing technologies such as unmanned aerial vehicles, and the continuous promotion of consumption policies, the potential demand for general aviation will be further released, and the industry has broad development prospects. At present, there are still problems such as imperfect policies and regulations, relatively insufficient aircraft R&D and innovation strength, and the industry still has a lot of room for development.