THE city is relocating its 43-year-old Nantou Heliport to Longhua District and expanding it into a much larger general aviation hub designed for helicopters, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, and other low-altitude aviation services.

The relocated facility has now been formally named Shenzhen Longhua Airport. Planned for the Zhangkengjing area of Longhua, it will replace the Nantou Heliport, which opened in 1983 and has long supported offshore oil operations in the South China Sea.

The move is more than a change of location. While the Nantou facility mainly handled helicopter operations, the new airport is planned to support flight training, emergency rescue, aircraft test flights, and validation testing of eVTOLs — also known as flying cars.

It is also expected to handle aerial sightseeing, aviation training and cross-border logistics, turning the replacement project into a broader piece of infrastructure for Shenzhen’s low-altitude aviation industry.

The new facility will be twice as large as the existing Nantou Heliport and is expected to be completed by the end of 2027, according to the latest project schedule.

Public areas and aviation operations will be separated, while viewing corridors are planned to allow visitors to watch aircraft operations without entering restricted zones.

The Nantou Heliport was originally built largely to support offshore oil exploration. Over the following decades, however, dense urban development grew around the site. The surrounding area has become one of Shenzhen’s major technology and business clusters, creating increasing tension between aviation safety requirements and urban development.

Shenzhen decided in 2012 to relocate the heliport.

The Longhua site gives the city room not only to replace the old facility, but also to broaden its role from conventional helicopter operations to testing and servicing emerging aircraft.

That shift is central to Shenzhen’s wider push into the low-altitude economy, which includes passenger transport, logistics, emergency services, drones and other aviation activities operating at relatively low altitudes.

(SD News)