China's general aviation has made significant strides in aircraft manufacturing and operation, with the number of registered enterprises in the traditional sector and the burgeoning unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry rising to over 700 and 17,000, respectively, according to two reports released on Saturday.
Multiple sub-forums of the Second CATA Aviation Conference were held in Beijing on Saturday, with the Development Report on China General Aviation and the Development Report on China Civil Unmanned Aerial System released.
According to the reports, the general aviation flight hours, the number of general aviation aircraft and the number of operating companies in the field all hit record highs last year.
In 2023, the traditional general aviation sector completed 1.371 million hours of flight operations, an increase of 12.4 percent over the previous year.
From January to July this year, the sector handled a total of 517,000 hours of commercial flights, of which 13,000 hours were passenger-carrying operations.
As of July this year, China had 712 registered general aviation enterprises.
In 2024, a total of 206 companies in the sector has received special funds for general aviation, with the total amount reaching 595.4 million yuan (about 83.61 million U.S. dollars).
"General aviation refers to civil aviation activities except air transport, such as agricultural and forestry plant protection, industrial line patrol, and emergency rescue, as well as the UAV operations that we are all very familiar with. General aviation has developed very rapidly in recent years. The main reason is that the new quality productive forces represented by UAVs have led the development of general aviation," said Sun Weiguo, general manager of the General Aviation Department under the China Air Transport Association.
China's UAV industry has maintained rapid growth over the past couple of years, with the annual growth rate of its economic scale 10 percentage points higher than that of the traditional general aviation, growing into an important driving force for the development of the low-altitude economic industry.
So far, more than 17,000 enterprises in China are engaged in UAV operations, with the number of UAVs registered nationwide exceeding 2 million.
In the first eight months of this year, the country's civil UAVs flew 19.461 million hours, up 15.6 percent year on year.
China's patent applications in the UAV industry now account for more than 70 percent of the world's total.
China's general aviation industry achieves remarkable progress: report
China's general aviation industry achieves remarkable progress: report
China will strengthen fiscal and financial coordination to amplify policy effectiveness, experts said as the draft central and local budgets for 2026 were unveiled on Friday at the ongoing fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress.
According to the draft central and local budgets for 2026, 1.3 trillion yuan (190 billion U.S. dollars) of ultra-long special treasury bonds will be issued to provide continued support for the implementation of major national strategies and security capacity-building in key areas and for large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-in programs.
Ultra-long special treasury bonds totaling 800 billion yuan will be allocated to support the implementation of major national strategies and security capacity-building in key areas, and 250 billion yuan in ultra-long special treasury bonds will be earmarked for consumer goods trade-in programs.
The country will refine these programs in terms of their scope and subsidy standards, and continue to support the scrapping and replacement of automobiles, home appliance trade-in schemes, and purchases of new digital and smart products.
China will also set up a 100-billion-yuan fiscal-financial coordination fund to boost domestic demand. The fund will support consumption and private investment through loan interest subsidies, financing guarantee, and risk compensation.
"Fiscal and monetary policies are the two major macroeconomic tools for macro-control, and their coordination is crucial. For instance, fiscal funds primarily serve as a guiding role, while financial institutions provide the capital. When fiscal guidance and financial resources are combined, the synergistic effect creates a result greater than the sum of its parts," said Yang Zhiyong, director of the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences.
"By leveraging interest subsidies, we can mobilize substantial credit from financial institutions, thereby naturally stimulating consumption. The Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with the People's Bank of China, has introduced highly innovative measures, such as providing guarantees for the issuance of corporate bonds by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and compensating investors for losses. I believe the leveraging effect, making minimal efforts for maximum results, will become even more potent," said Yao Dongmin, director of the Center for China Fiscal Development under the Central University of Finance and Economics.
China's top legislature opened its annual session on Thursday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Party and state leaders attending the opening meeting alongside more than 2,700 NPC deputies. This year's NPC session is scheduled to run till March 12.
China to strengthen fiscal, financial coordination to amplify policy effectiveness: experts
