Chinese eVTOL developer EHang announced on March 30, 2025, that two of its subsidiaries, based in Guandong and Hefei respectively, have received an Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) allowing them to carry people on pilotless aircraft.
This approval is seen as a major milestone on the path towards providing the first commercial eVTOL services anywhere in the world.
For now, the AOC is restricted in its geographical scope to Guandong and Hefei, but EHang is seeking to extend it to more Chinese cities in the near future.
The first expected application of the EHang’s two-seater EH216-S eVTOL should be in sightseeing tourist flights, but subsequently these unmanned aircraft may be used for urban commuting in the dense Chinese megalopolises.
When publicly announcing this milestone, EHang highlighted that, in addition to this AOC, it has also been the first advanced air mobility developer in the world to obtain a type certificate, a standard airworthiness certificate and a production certificate for passenger-carrying pilotless eVTOL aircraft.
