Manufacturing aircraft may be the most visible part of the low-altitude economy, but it is unlikely to be the most profitable. It is also the most capital-intensive link in the value chain, covering design, composite materials, avionics, electric motors, power electronics, battery systems, software, certification and assembly. In the early stages, most of the value is indeed created by aircraft and component manufacturers. But as fleets expand, maintenance, spare parts and upgrades become increasingly important. As in conventional aviation, an aircraft’s lifetime value can ultimately rival or even exceed its initial sale price.
A vertiport may look like little more than a landing pad, but in reality it is a complex piece of infrastructure. It includes takeoff and landing zones, charging facilities, energy storage, an operations center, passenger terminals, security screening, emergency response systems, communications and navigation equipment, links to road and public transport, and commercial space. Building a single vertiport creates demand across multiple industries, from construction and energy to telecommunications, cybersecurity and digital services. A facility that supports passenger transport, cargo operations, medical flights and charging at the same time is economically far more resilient than one designed for a single use case.
The most valuable opportunities may lie in the digital layer. Traditional air traffic control was never designed to manage thousands of small aircraft operating simultaneously above cities. The industry therefore needs UTM – Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management – platforms. These systems register aircraft, coordinate flight paths, manage air corridors, account for weather conditions, prevent conflicts, enforce no-fly zones, exchange data with conventional aviation and provide digital identification and cybersecurity. McKinsey estimates that core digital platforms will account for roughly 5% of total AAM value chain spending by 2030. But once customer applications, booking platforms, multimodal integration and mobility-as-a-service are added, the digital layer could represent as much as 30% of the entire ecosystem. That means a significant share of future profits may go not to aircraft manufacturers, but to companies controlling data, routing, payments and customer interfaces.
Connectivity and navigation represent another layer where companies that never build an aircraft can still capture substantial value. The low-altitude economy requires uninterrupted coverage, highly accurate positioning and real-time data exchange, while today’s mobile networks were designed primarily for users on the ground. The large-scale deployment of low-flying aircraft will require upgraded base stations, expanded satellite communications, edge computing and dedicated surveillance systems. In practice, the industry is an integration of communications, sensors, computing, positioning, navigation and airspace management. Telecommunications companies could become some of the market’s biggest winners without manufacturing a single aircraft.
Nor does the opportunity end there. Low-altitude infrastructure serves as the foundation for several adjacent markets that will expand alongside it, often with little direct connection to aviation itself. The growth of autonomous aircraft accelerates demand for autonomous control systems, computer vision, sensors and digital twins – the same technologies that later power robotaxis, warehouse robotics, industrial automation and autonomous agricultural machinery. Every flight generates vast amounts of data on weather, traffic, infrastructure, demand and aircraft performance. That data, in turn, supports entirely new businesses in forecasting, predictive maintenance, dynamic pricing, urban traffic management and insurance analytics – industries that may have no direct involvement in manufacturing or operating aircraft.
UAM routes cannot be designed independently of the cities they serve. They require digital models of urban development, noise, wind patterns, passenger flows and energy consumption, creating demand for digital twin technologies, geospatial analytics and urban infrastructure management platforms long before the first commercial aircraft enters service. The combination of drones, eVTOLs, robotic warehouses and artificial intelligence is also giving rise to an entirely new logistics model, where delivery times are measured in minutes rather than days. The implications are obvious for healthcare, e-commerce, manufacturing and time-critical spare parts. At the same time, electric aviation, renewable energy and digitally optimized routing increase demand for lifecycle emissions accounting, carbon data and green finance. For newly built cities, this offers an opportunity to design transport and energy as a single low-carbon system from the outset, rather than trying to integrate them later.
There is also a longer-term, but entirely realistic, connection with the space economy. Low-altitude mobility will depend on satellite navigation, communications and Earth observation, creating an integrated chain from satellites to autonomous aircraft. Satellites provide positioning and data, airborne platforms deliver detailed monitoring, and artificial intelligence transforms that information into commercial services. At the same time, an entirely new labor market is emerging, with roles such as air route architects, UTM operators, vertiport engineers, aviation battery specialists, low-altitude data analysts, autonomous aviation cybersecurity experts and multimodal transport designers – professions that barely existed until recently.
As fleets expand, an independent aftermarket will emerge alongside them. Battery diagnostics, composite repair, pilot and operator training, air traffic controller education, personnel certification, liability insurance and cyber risk assessment will all become growing businesses. Unlike manufacturing, this segment expands with the size of the active fleet rather than new aircraft sales, while requiring nowhere near the same level of investment in factories or aircraft certification.
Why does so much of the value shift away from manufacturers? The answer lies in three structural constraints that affect hardware producers more than anyone else. First, certification takes far longer than most expect. An eVTOL is not consumer electronics. Manufacturers must prove the safety of the aircraft design, software, batteries, electric propulsion systems, flight controls and production process itself. Even after the aircraft is certified, manufacturing facilities and operators must also undergo separate certification. Second, scaling production demands an entirely different level of investment than building a prototype. Companies must simultaneously finance testing, certification, factories, supplier networks, workforce training, service operations and spare parts inventories. Third, aircraft cannot create a market on their own. Even a fully certified eVTOL cannot operate at scale without vertiports, charging infrastructure, flight routes, UTM systems, clear airspace regulations and support from city authorities. All three barriers weigh primarily on manufacturers, while infrastructure providers, software developers and adjacent service companies face far fewer of these constraints. That is precisely why so much of the industry’s future profit pool is likely to migrate toward them.
Shyngys Yerbolat, expert at EconomyKZ.org
