Skyports to launch drone delivery flights for Royal Mail

Skyports Drone Services and Royal Mail will launch Orkney I-Port, a three-month trial of drone delivery to the Orkney Islands, an archipelago off the northeast coast of Scotland, as early as this summer.

This partnership between Skyports, Royal Mail, Orkney Islands Council Harbour Authority and Scottish carrier Loganair is expected to provide time, cost and emission savings as well as improved connectivity for residents of the rural island region.

Raleigh, N.C.-based Skyports has not determined the unmanned aerial vehicle system to be used for the project, but the drone will be “a rotorcraft, electric VTOL [vertical take-off and landing] aircraft that will be capable of carrying parcels and mail,” according to Skyports spokesperson Maggie Mullan . The drone has a payload capacity of 10 kilograms.

“For these operations, the drone will be flying very short distances between the islands and will be able to carry out repeated operations before battery changes are required,” she told Air Cargo Next.

Increased island connectivity Orkney’s geography and harsh weather impact the ability to provide uninterrupted delivery service by traditional methods. Postal deliveries arrive from mainland Scotland to Kirkwall Airport (KOI) via the Loganair RMA Orkney Flyer. From there, they are delivered to residents on Orkney’s main island, Mainland, or transported to one of the 19 other inhabited islands via ferry or small passenger plane.

[caption id="attachment_57135518" align="alignright" width="300"] A Skyports Drone Services drone (Photo: Skyports/Swoop Aero)[/caption] “Mainland Orkney currently receives between 3.5 to 4 tonnes of mail/parcels each day,” Chris Paxton , head of drone trials at London-based Royal Mail, told Air Cargo Next . “This figure is for all 20 inhabited islands.”

Royal Mail hopes to begin flights in July, according to Paxton, although the timeline has not been finalized.

Pauses in the ferry schedule are common during poor weather due to the challenges of docking safely.

“At present, residents rely on a ferry to deliver their parcels; however, in inclement weather, when high winds or seas mean the ferry is unable to deliver, residents’ deliveries are consequently delayed,” Mullan said. “The drone we’re using for these operations can fly in weather that the ferry would not be able to sail in.”

Skyports will establish shore-to-ship flight operations and a daily inter-island mail distribution service, operating between three locations across Orkney. Mail will be delivered by ground transportation from Kirkwall to a hub in Stromness and transported by drone to Royal Mail sites on Graemsay and the north of Hoy. From there, postal workers will carry out their usual island delivery routes.

I-Port a permanent solution? The drones will be operated beyond visual line of sight but will use extended visual line of sight — while the drone operators will be unable to see the drones, others will observe them, according to Mullan.

“Skyports will employ local hub operators at the take-off and landing points to load and unload the drone; they will also act as visual observers for the duration of the flight,” she said.

Skyports will provide logistics for several use-cases, including delivery of documentation and provisions as well as the transportation of required refueling bunker samples. Skyports and Loganair will also conduct a feasibility study to explore the future of heavy payload operations in Orkney.

“While the project is three months long, there is optionality to extend it as the airspace rules we are using for this project can be implemented on a permanent basis,” Mullan said.

The I-Port project is funded by the British Department for Transport’s Freight Innovation Fund and executed by the governmental innovation agency Connected Places Catapult .

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