# The Trillion-Dollar Race Track of Low-Altitude Insurance: 40+ Insurance Companies Testing the Waters, Challenges Like Fragmented Data and Complex Intertwined Risks Await Solutions

As a drone quietly passes overhead, we may marvel at technological progress, but rarely consider a calm hypothesis: when accidents happen, who bears the risks, and who guarantees the losses?

In the consumer market, the answer is relatively clear—DJI’s third-party liability insurance on the DJI Mall costs only 59 yuan for a month. But in broader industry scenarios, the answer remains unclear: what happens if a delivery drone’s package is damaged? Who covers the costs if an eVTOL test flight fails? Why do insurance companies “dare not insure” or “simply cannot insure”?

In February 2026, the National Development and Reform Commission, the State Administration of Financial Regulation, and the Civil Aviation Administration jointly issued a document outlining a clear timeline for low-altitude insurance: establishing mandatory insurance systems by 2027, and forming policy frameworks by 2030. With policies set and schedules in place, investigations by Blue Whale News reveal that a silent battle for breakthrough in the “deep water” of low-altitude insurance has quietly begun.

The consumer-level foundation is mature, but industry-specific customization is still in early stages.

On DJI’s official store, third-party liability insurance for drones is offered as an independent value-added service on the “shelf.” Underwritten by ZhongAn Insurance, it mainly covers third-party property damage, personal injury, public facility damage, and related legal costs caused by accidents during flight. Purchase conditions include device activation within five years and a maximum takeoff weight of no more than 50 kg, among others.

Depending on the model, this insurance applies to consumer aerial photography drones and industry-use drones. For consumer drones, users can choose coverage amounts from 200,000 to 1 million yuan, with policy durations of 1, 3, 6 months, or 1 year, and optional deductibles. For example, with a 200,000 yuan coverage, the premium for a 1-month policy with deductible is 59 yuan; for a 1-year policy, it’s 169 yuan.

In recent years, as the consumer drone market matures and users’ awareness of insurance protection increases, purchasing insurance along with the drone has become one of the most common scenarios. Some sales agents told reporters that most customers typically buy the “Flexible Exchange” service, with third-party liability insurance often included as a free gift.

Liability insurance, damage insurance, and other core products are also the main focus of current insurance companies’ layouts. According to statistics, about 45 property insurance companies have registered over a hundred insurance products covering “drones,” “unmanned aerial vehicles,” and “low-altitude aircraft,” mainly focusing on drone hull damage insurance and third-party liability.

“After nearly ten years of development, basic insurance types like third-party liability and hull damage insurance are quite mature. The differences in coverage responsibilities and rates among various insurance companies are now minimal,” said a senior executive from a property insurance firm.

However, the coverage for consumer-grade drones is just one piece of the low-altitude insurance landscape.

According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, by 2035, China’s low-altitude economy market is expected to surpass 3.5 trillion yuan. Beneath this trillion-yuan blue ocean, technological innovation and industrial upgrades of new low-altitude aircraft are advancing deeply, with drone applications in agriculture, forestry, inspection, urban management, emergency rescue, and logistics expanding in an orderly manner. The market space for insurance supporting these applications is also opening up in tandem.

“Currently, China’s low-altitude economy has moved from conceptual exploration to substantive construction, forming a new development pattern of ‘policy guidance, scenario-driven, regional coordination,’” an official from PICC Property and Casualty said. “At the same time, the industry chain is long, applications are broad, and R&D investment is high, with new business models and complex risk types, leading to diversified and customized insurance needs.”

Some leading insurers are already experimenting with product, underwriting models, and service solutions to further enrich the low-altitude economy insurance market.

Vertical exploration of the industry chain upstream and downstream has become an important direction for insurers to expand their protection boundaries. For example, in 2025, PICC Property and Casualty launched “Low-Altitude Aircraft Onboard Detection Equipment Loss Compensation Insurance,” covering core risks in low-altitude detection scenarios—when detection equipment is damaged or destroyed due to natural disasters, aircraft defects, communication failures, or mid-air collisions, companies can receive compensation.

Horizontal deepening into specific application scenarios is also a main focus of current innovation. For instance, in the scenario of drone delivery of medical supplies, Ping An Property & Casualty collaborated with Zhihang Feigou to customize a dedicated protection plan, covering risks such as sample safety during transportation and third-party liability, embedding insurance products into specific business scenarios.

Insurance models are also breaking new ground. In September 2025, Chongqing launched the country’s first low-altitude economy co-insurance platform, involving 19 insurance companies, and released the first dedicated product “Yudu Low-Altitude Insurance.” This “multi-party joint insurance and risk sharing” model provides more robust risk protection for high-risk, high-value low-altitude projects.

However, these innovations are still at the “point breakthrough” stage.

Unseen risks and unclear data: the “deep water” of low-altitude insurance

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission, the State Administration of Financial Regulation, and the Civil Aviation Administration jointly issued the “Implementation Opinions on Promoting High-Quality Development of Low-Altitude Insurance,” proposing nine specific measures across policy systems, institutional construction, product services, and foundational capabilities, while setting a clear timeline:

By 2027, a mandatory liability insurance system for unmanned aerial vehicles will be initially established, with a continuous enrichment of low-altitude insurance products to better meet various application needs; by 2030, the policy framework for low-altitude insurance will be basically formed, further safeguarding the safe and healthy development of the low-altitude economy.

With the schedule set, where does the current low-altitude insurance market stand?

From the overall market development stage, Yan Peng, deputy general manager of ZhongAn’s Digital Life division, believes that China’s low-altitude insurance market is in the policy initiation and market germination phase, soon entering a period of accelerated growth.

Regarding product structure, Yan further analyzed, “The supply mainly consists of drone hull damage insurance, third-party liability, and pilot insurance—covering aircraft and operators. There are fewer products related to logistics, eVTOL, and other emerging scenarios, and protection in areas like industry R&D, operation, and data is noticeably lacking. In terms of service systems, there is a common phenomenon of data silos; insurers often cannot communicate with air traffic control or manufacturers, leading to long claims processes, difficulty in damage assessment, and inconsistent responsibility standards.”

“Standardized insurance clauses are not detailed enough to cover our complex performance scenarios, but customized solutions are too expensive for small companies,” said an operator of drone performances. Due to cost constraints, the company currently only purchases mandatory third-party liability insurance, while hull damage insurance is not bought; equipment failures mainly rely on after-sales support from manufacturers.

Behind this are real challenges faced by insurers.

One is the complexity and interweaving of risks. A senior executive from Ping An P&C explained, “The actual application scenarios of low-altitude economy are diverse, and drone technology evolves rapidly. Risks are influenced by multiple factors such as aircraft, specific scenarios, and operator behavior, making risk conditions more complex and variable.”

A related executive from PICC further broke down from technical, operational, and compliance perspectives: “Technically, cross-disciplinary integration and rapid iteration make R&D and risk transformation prominent issues; operationally, constraints from weather, terrain, and air traffic control are strong, especially in coastal areas facing severe convection and complex wind fields; meanwhile, industry regulation is still being improved, with uncertainties in compliance and operation. When flight safety accidents occur, they can easily cause third-party personal and property damage, with high risk spillover, requiring insurers to break traditional boundaries and build multi-layered, broad-coverage protection systems.”

Another challenge is the weak data foundation, causing pricing models to “fail.” Yan Peng admitted that as an emerging industry, insurers lack sufficient historical loss data, and existing pricing models and risk control methods cannot match the actual insurance needs of the low-altitude industry, leading to insurers’ reluctance or inability to insure, and resulting in coverage gaps and prohibitively high premiums for industry participants.

To address these difficulties, the “Implementation Opinions” emphasize improving data infrastructure and professional capacity.

Zhang Xiaolan, deputy director and researcher at the Policy Simulation Laboratory of the National Information Center’s Economic Forecasting Department, explained that on one hand, accelerating the construction of low-altitude insurance information platforms and sharing databases is crucial. Using big data and AI to achieve precise risk pricing and early warning can solve issues of “difficult pricing” and “weak risk control.” On the other hand, strengthening professional capacity building by guiding insurers to collaborate with low-altitude aircraft manufacturers and operators to research new risks will improve risk identification and assessment capabilities. The dual enhancement of data and expertise will ensure insurers’ sound operation and promote a shift from “post-claim compensation” to “pre-emptive prevention and mid-term intervention,” improving risk management effectiveness.

Policy-driven to market-driven, low-altitude insurance enters a “high-speed growth period”

Despite many challenges, industry insiders see the low-altitude insurance market as a highly certain blue ocean and a new track that leading property insurers are racing to develop.

In terms of current achievements, PICC Property and Casualty has built a product matrix covering “R&D, manufacturing, operation, and infrastructure,” launching products like R&D loss insurance, intellectual property insurance, and scientific research test flight insurance. ZhongAn Insurance expects to insure over 1 million drones by 2025, with a risk coverage exceeding 200 billion yuan, serving industries such as agriculture, logistics, public safety, firefighting, and film. Ping An P&C has comprehensive coverage for large aviation fleets and drones, insuring over 150,000 drones with risk protection surpassing 90 billion yuan.

“Over the next 3-5 years, low-altitude insurance will enter a rapid growth phase. The industry will shift from ‘policy-driven’ to ‘market-driven,’ and low-altitude insurance products will evolve from ‘optional’ to ‘necessity.’ It is expected that within ten years, the market size could grow from billions to hundreds of billions,” Yan Peng predicted.

Regarding specific breakthroughs, Yan proposed four directions: first, the full implementation of mandatory insurance systems, significantly increasing insurance penetration and premium scale; second, establishing low-altitude insurance information platforms, gradually integrating data from manufacturers, air traffic control, and meteorology, shifting from experience-based to data-driven precise pricing and risk control; third, covering the entire industry chain—from R&D, manufacturing, testing, operation, infrastructure, to data and network security—further promoting high-quality development of the low-altitude industry; fourth, reconstructing insurance service models, shifting from passive post-accident compensation to proactive risk management before and during operations, providing professional risk reduction services for all participants in low-altitude economic activities.

Leading insurers are also defining their development paths. PICC P&C plans to continue innovating product systems, focusing on new scenarios, equipment, and business models, improving customization and precision; deepening the “insurance + service” model, strengthening cross-department collaboration, and providing comprehensive pre-warning, mid-term risk control, and post-claim services to enhance risk mitigation; upgrading government-enterprise-society cooperation mechanisms to expand coverage and influence, helping key cities develop low-altitude economy models and offering replicable solutions nationwide.

Ping An P&C emphasizes ongoing exploration of the “insurance + service + technology” model, building a multi-layered, broad-coverage, differentiated low-altitude economy insurance and service system to support high-quality development; actively participating in the construction of low-altitude economic protection ecosystems, collaborating with industry associations, universities, and upstream/downstream enterprises to explore risk mitigation solutions, and promoting more insurance innovation pilots.

However, this blue ocean is not accessible to all immediately. While top insurers accelerate their deployment, many small and medium-sized insurers remain on the sidelines, observing how deep the water is.

“A lot of competition exists in the auto insurance market, and everyone is looking for new opportunities. Low-altitude insurance is indeed a certain growth market,” said a senior executive from a mid-sized property insurer. But he also admitted that although the company has launched basic products like drone third-party liability, hull damage, and comprehensive insurance, it has not yet developed customized solutions for specific regions or manufacturers, citing cost considerations and ongoing observation.

The blue ocean is vast, but entry barriers are high—weak data infrastructure and high customization costs mean that many small insurers still need time to find their niche in this new ecosystem.

(Edited by: Liu Sijia)

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