While the rest of the world is still workshopping PowerPoint slides about the future of urban air mobility, China has gone ahead and started the engine. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has issued the world’s first-ever commercial operation certificates for autonomous passenger-carrying drones. The two recipients, EHang Holdings Limited and Hefei Hey Airlines Co., Ltd., are now cleared to actually charge money for flying people around in their pilotless electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
This isn’t just another test flight permit. The Operator Certificate (OC) is the final piece of the regulatory puzzle, following the Type, Production, and Airworthiness Certificates. State media compared it to the difference between getting a car approved for production versus getting a license to operate a taxi service. EHang, whose two-seater EH216-S drone is the vehicle in question, has now collected the full set of “four certificates,” making it the first company globally to do so for a passenger-carrying eVTOL. Initial services are expected to launch in cities like Guangzhou and Hefei, focusing on low-altitude tourism and sightseeing tours before anyone starts using them for their morning commute.
Why is this important?
This move effectively vaults China to the front of the global air taxi race, transforming the concept from a futuristic novelty into a commercially licensed reality. While Western competitors like Joby and Archer are still navigating the labyrinth of their own aviation authorities, a process not expected to conclude before the end of 2025, China has established a regulatory framework and given operators the green light. This decisive, state-backed push into the “low-altitude economy” is less about waiting for perfect technology and more about a willingness to deploy it, creating a real-world operational testbed that the rest of the industry can only watch from the ground. For now, the sky—at least in certain Chinese cities—officially belongs to the robots.
