The "Verband unbemannte Luftfahrt" (An initiative of BDL and BDLI) provides information on the development of the German drone market in its current study (2021). The complete study can be downloaded from the BDL website.

430,700 drones fly in Germany: In total, well over 400,000 drones are in circulation in Germany. The largest part of these, 385,500 drones, are used privately. However, the market for private drones seems to be saturated, while the commercial use of drones is becoming increasingly popular: The share of commercially used drones increased by 138 per cent since 2019 to now 45,200 drones.

More and more people are employed in the drone market: More than 14,000 people in Germany focus their careers on drones - that's almost 4,000 more than in 2019. 423 million euros have been invested in German drone companies since 2012, 67 percent of which within the last two years alone. On average, German drone companies are just under six years old and have around seventeen employees.

Germany's drone market is in the midfield internationally: the German drone market is currently worth 840 million euros. The commercial drone market accounts for 738 million euros and the private drone market for 102 million euros. In the ranking of the largest commercial drone markets, Germany ranks fourth after the USA, China and Japan. However, this is put into perspective if one does not take the absolute size of the market as a basis, but the size of the market per employee: then Norway and Switzerland are right at the top in a global comparison. The US, the largest market in absolute terms, then takes fifth place, while Germany remains in 17th place, unchanged from 2019.

The German drone market will continue to grow: the number of drones in Germany will increase to around 450,000 by 2025. While growth in private use will continue to level off, the number of commercially used drones will increase to 132,000. Currently, only one in nine drones in Germany is operated commercially; by 2025, this will already be one in three drones. The German drone market will grow from 840 million euros to more than 1.6 billion euros by 2025, which corresponds to an annual average growth rate of 14.5 percent. Growth will be driven primarily by the commercial market.

Air taxis are technology drivers for commercial aviation: Systems for air mobility in urban and rural areas will be an important necessary technological intermediate step between drones and commercial aviation. They are at the intersection of autonomisation and electrification of aviation and are also attracting great interest from investors: In the period from January 2020 to March 2021, more than one billion US dollars flowed into the passenger drone market - half of which went to German companies. However, profitable commercial business models are not expected before 2030. German companies are global leaders in this technology sector.

Source: BDL