Volant Aerotech Signs USD 1.75 Billion Deal with Thailand for 500 eVTOLs, Setting Record for Largest Overseas Order of Chinese Passenger Low-Altitude Aircraft (July 2025)
Volant Aerotech Signs USD 1.75 Billion Deal with Thailand for 500 eVTOLs, Setting Record for Largest Overseas Order of Chinese Passenger Low-Altitude Aircraft (July 2025)
Author: Backhaus International Low-Altitude Economy Cooperation NetworkIn July 2025, at the 2025 International Low-Altitude Economy Expo, China’s Volant Aerotech, Thailand’s Pan Pacific Group and China Aviation Engineering formally signed an industrial cooperation and procurement agreement valued at USD 1.75 billion. The Thai side placed a bulk order for 500 VE25 passenger eVTOLs, hitting an all-time high for a single overseas order of Chinese manned low-altitude aircraft and standing as a landmark cross-border low-altitude industrial cooperation project under the Belt and Road Initiative. Moving beyond simple complete aircraft exports, this cooperation adopts an integrated bundled solution encompassing aircraft supply, vertiport infrastructure construction, operation training and full-domain airspace planning. Per the agreement, China Aviation Engineering will construct 32 standardized vertiports across more than a dozen core Thai cities including Bangkok, Phuket and Koh Samui over three years, paired with a Southeast Asian intelligent low-altitude airspace scheduling platform. Volant Aerotech will set up a Southeast Asian operation and maintenance headquarters plus a pilot training center in Thailand, cultivating over 300 local professionals in low-altitude flight and technical maintenance annually. Optimized for tropical island environments, the VE25 model boasts robust resistance to high humidity and crosswinds, targeting three primary scenarios: inter-island tourism commuting, rapid airport transfers and offshore emergency rescue, with services extended to neighboring nations such as the Maldives, Laos and Cambodia. The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand has simultaneously launched two-way airworthiness recognition consultations with Chinese authorities to streamline approval procedures for domestic eVTOL operations within Thailand. Morgan Stanley’s industrial report indicates the Southeast Asian island low-altitude mobility market maintains an annual growth rate exceeding 35%, with long-term market scale projected to surpass USD 200 billion. The Backhaus International Low-Altitude Economy Cooperation Network comments that this project represents a new paradigm for Chinese low-altitude industry overseas expansion. Rather than merely selling individual products, it exports a complete low-altitude industrial ecosystem solution, deepening bilateral economic and trade ties through full-chain cooperation covering infrastructure, airspace and operations. It delivers a replicable cooperation template for domestic low-altitude enterprises to explore ASEAN and Middle Eastern markets and substantially elevates the global industrial discourse power of China’s low-altitude equipment sector.
