Harmony Tech likens UTM system to ‘traffic lights’ for low-altitude economy
Harmony Tech Innovation chairman Jacqueline Kang Junjun says unmanned aircraft traffic management (UTM) systems are essential for Hong Kong's low-altitude economy, comparing them to traffic lights. The company's UTM system has completed six months of technical testing, including cross-border trials
Hong Kong's development of the low-altitude economy will depend on unmanned aircraft traffic management systems to keep increasingly busy airspace safe and orderly, according to Jacqueline Kang Junjun, chairman of Harmony Tech Innovation.
Kang made the remarks in an interview with Sing Tao Daily, sister publication of The Standard, at Super Terminal Expo 2026 on Tuesday, where Civil Aviation Department Director Clara Wong also visited the company's booth.
Describing unmanned aircraft traffic management, or UTM, as the “traffic lights” of the skies, Kang said such systems would form a key part of the infrastructure needed to support the low-altitude economy. She said the company's UTM system had been included in the government's Regulatory Sandbox X and had completed six months of technical testing, including cross-border trials in the Greater Bay Area.
Low-altitude traffic management extends beyond drones and electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs, to include helicopters, gliders, seaplanes and hot-air balloons, Kang said. “It's like different types of cars on the road,” she said, adding that without systems to manage routes, schedules, takeoffs and landings, low-altitude airspace could become disorderly.
Kang said traffic management infrastructure would need to be in place before authorities could become more comfortable with opening up more low-altitude airspace. She added that Hong Kong had an early foundation in low-altitude traffic management through its long history of general aviation. Citing the city's decades of helicopter operations and privately owned aircraft, Kang said civilian helicopter use had historically been more established in Hong Kong than on the mainland, where helicopters were previously used mainly by disciplined services.
“Our company's edge lies in cross-border management,” Kang said, describing such capability as important to connecting low-altitude transport networks across the Greater Bay Area. With cross-border testing in the region completed, she said the company saw potential for the system to be used internationally, particularly in markets such as Singapore and Malaysia, where relatively short distances between islands could create demand for air transport faster than boats.
Kang said effective low-altitude traffic management also required hardware capable of accurately detecting aircraft and other objects in the air. The company uses remote optoelectronic equipment and so-called “low, slow, small” radar to detect small, low-flying and slow-moving targets, including drones. Kang said the radar could identify small targets flying below 600 meters and was sensitive enough to detect a single pigeon. The company has installed a radar system with a 12-kilometer detection range on Lung Kwu Chau in Tuen Mun, covering an area that includes cross-border routes linking Hong Kong with Shenzhen and Guangzhou, she said. Its remote optoelectronic equipment can also identify targets and transmit images from distances of five to 10 kilometers, according to Kang. On unauthorized aircraft activity, Kang said the company's UTM system also included counter-drone functions to detect and monitor “uncooperative” targets. She said the technology had therefore developed beyond basic traffic management, with capabilities to monitor and manage both cooperative aircraft operating within the system and targets that do not participate in it.