A HIGHLY efficient, time-saving helicopter service has been called for as part of the aerial transportation between cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) by Shenzhen deputies at the annual session of the 13th Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress.

At the meeting reviewing Guangdong’s 14th Five-Year Plan, deputies from Shenzhen suggested establishing a GBA Low-Altitude Flight Center in Shenzhen, high-speed intercity rail between Shenzhen and Guangzhou and giving higher quotas for private hospitals to purchase large and complicated medical equipment.

“The general aviation industry represented by helicopters is an emerging industry of trillion-yuan market potential, but policies like aviation controls and a shortage of services guarantee a bottleneck in its development in the GBA,” Deputy Zhang Xuan said, suggesting establishing a service in Shenzhen to assist the development of the industry.

“Shenzhen is the demonstration area of national general aviation industry. It is a demonstration base for aerial tourism and a testing place of classified management reform of national general aviation.

“The service center should be established in Shenzhen because it has taken a lead in cross-border helicopter service and the drone industry. The city is the home of more than 600 drone enterprises whose output value has reached 50 billion yuan (US$7.7 billion) a year,” Zhang said.

(Han Ximin)