Where is the drone market going? And what are its current trends? Let us analyse it in details.

The global drone market is expected to reach 50 billion EUR by 2030, with commercial drones growing faster at a rate of 7,7% per year. This growth is justified by a shift in the industry. While drone services make up 80% of the market in 2023, the hardware segment is growing the fastest, at 9,3% per year. Although hardware won't dominate the market, there is a strong demand for new and improved drones, which will also lead to more services once the drones are in use.

Mapping and surveying operations dominate with 9 billion EUR in 2023, while the utilities and energy sector represent 4,23 billion EUR with expectations to reach 6,74 billion EUR by 2030. Alternatively, intralogistics and courier services sector are rapidly growing with companies like Wing, Zipline, and UPS Flight Forward are moving from trials to real operations.

In 2023, a total of 7,6 million drones operated with an estimation of 20,822 flight hours per day in countries all over the world. This huge number of drones comes with a need of counter-drone market, another emerging market tackling unauthorized drones and securing the industry ecosystem.  

Asia leads the commercial drone market with China and Japan on top. However, the dispute about Chinese drones in the US might impact the US production and Chinese exports. These statistics and numbers are as important as the drone industry´s growth, as it´s expanding applications in different areas such as Urban Air Mobility that is no longer an idea but a currently developped sector. This shows that drones are no longer small photographic devices but now a new mode of transportation.

What do you expect from the drone industry in the future?

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