Dronamics shifts focus to building drone airline

Dronamics, a developer and operator of large cargo drones, is transitioning from a focus on equipment development and sales to operating their aircraft as a service for airlines under the newly launched Dronamics Airlines brand. [caption id="attachment_95246" align="alignright" width="450"] Dronamics is launching an airline offering airfreight service using its proprietary Black Swan UAVs. Photo courtesy of Dronamics.[/caption] The cargo drone airline will operate three subsidiaries based in Ireland, Australia and Canada, as the company considers these countries to be “leaders in drone regulations.” Dronamics expects to receive operational authorization from the EU by the end of the year. Following regulatory approvals, operations would commence with Dronamics’ proprietary unmanned aircraft, the Black Swan, which can support a 350-kilogram payload over a distance of 2,500 kilometers. Dronamics envisions ground-based pilots supporting take-off of the Black Swan, and once airborne at a cruising altitude of 18,000 feet, the drone would then navigate autonomously to its destination port,” Dronamics’ chief operating officer, Sergio Oliveira e Silva, told Air Cargo World . The company has identified forwarders, e-tailers and current users of next-day express capacity as potential users of same-day, point-to-point drone capacity, and sees particular benefit in pharma and time-critical parts logistics Plans call for the drone airlines to operate out of existing airports without the need for specialized infrastructure designed to support drones. This contrasts with other drone operators that envision specialized ports. To date, Dronamics has identified and plans to establish 15 droneport locations, mostly at airports that currently have a substantial cargo operation, CEO and cofounder Svilen Rangelov told Air Cargo World . “We've focused on airports who have experience in cargo operations, as well as some smaller ones who have aspirations in being cargo operators,” Rangelov said. “So far, we've stayed away from the busiest passenger airports for both regulatory [reasons] but also, slot reasons, congestion, and so on.” As for future plans for its proprietary drone, the U.K.- and Bulgaria-based company plans to continue its research and development efforts on drones, but sees its future potential as a service provider and partner to logistics providers. Rangelov said the company will ultimately operate as a service with a research and development function. “It just made more sense to be closer to the customer by providing this as a service instead of betting everything on aircraft sales,” he said. Additionally, the company believes that selling the aircraft outright would impede their innovation efforts. “You [would] have to go through a learning curve with every single customer,” said Rangelov. Alternatively, Rangelov told Air Cargo World that they would consider adopting other drone developers’ technology to advance their airline. “Almost everyone else is focused on developing aircraft to sell, at which point we would be potentially a customer to them for our airline operations.” The company also expressed interest in forming interline relationships with international airlines in their effort to operate primarily as a service. Specifically, Rangelov believes their aircraft could be utilized as “a feeder for some domestic regional operations.” As for long-term prospects, Rangelov told Air Cargo World that they are aiming for a vast expansion of their droneport network. “There’s maybe 55,000 airfields around the world, we think [in] the long-term vision we would have the capability to service each one of them.”

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