Enabling the Low-Altitude Economy: Technologies and Infrastructures for Scalable Operations of Emerging Air Mobility

Dear Colleagues,

The rise of the low-altitude economy is accelerating a transition from isolated drone demonstrations to city- and region-scale air mobility services that are expected to carry real societal value: time-critical logistics, infrastructure inspection, emergency response, inter-island connectivity, and, increasingly, passenger-oriented concepts such as eVTOL-enabled urban air mobility. However, the decisive bottleneck is no longer aircraft capability alone. The core challenge lies in scalability: how to coordinate diverse vehicles, operators, and missions safely and efficiently in complex environments, supported by robust technologies and infrastructures that can sustain long-term high-density operations.

This Special Issue aims to provide a focused platform for research that bridges the gap between promising prototypes and dependable, large-scale deployment. We encourage contributions that jointly consider digital infrastructure (e.g., UTM services, connectivity, data platforms, cybersecurity, digital twins) and physical infrastructure (e.g., vertiports, landing sites, sensing networks, energy/charging ecosystems), along with operational concepts and governance mechanisms that enable safe, resilient, and sustainable growth.

The scope of this Special Issue spans technological, infrastructural, operational, and policy-driven solutions for emerging air mobility. The topic is inherently multidisciplinary, drawing on transportation engineering, aviation systems, communications and networking, urban planning, logistics, human factors, safety science, and AI methods. By consolidating advances across these domains, this Special Issue seeks to shape evidence-based pathways toward scalable low-altitude operations that are economically viable, environmentally responsible, and socially acceptable.

We welcome the submission of original research articles, reviews, case studies, and conceptual frameworks. Suggested themes include, but are not limited to, the following:

• UTM architectures, service orchestration, and interoperability among operators and service providers, and advanced air mobility (AAM) ecosystems;
• Strategic/tactical deconfliction, trajectory management, and conformance monitoring at scale for heterogeneous fleets, including drones, flying vehicles, and eVTOL-based AAM services;
• Communication Navigation Surveillance (CNS)-enabling technologies (e.g., 5G/6G, edge–cloud, resilient positioning);
• Digital twins and simulation/benchmarking platforms for city-scale planning and performance evaluation;
• Vertiport/landing-site network planning, capacity modeling, and turnaround operations;
• Energy and charging infrastructure, grid interaction, and lifecycle operational planning;
• Safety assurance, risk modeling, and validation/verification methods for high-density BVLOS and mixed operations involving flying vehicles and other low-altitude aircraft;
• Cybersecurity, privacy, trusted data sharing, and governance for multi-stakeholder environments;
• Noise, emissions, community impact, and equitable access linked to infrastructure and operational design;
• Integration with surface transportation, ports, and remote-area connectivity.

We look forward to receiving your contributions and to advancing the scientific foundations and practical solutions needed to enable scalable emerging air mobility within the low-altitude economy.

Dr. Wei Dai
Dr. Bizhao Pang
Prof. Dr. Kin Huat Low
Dr. Qianyu Liu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Future Transportation is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.