CF EMEA: Regulation limits potential of cargo drone embrace

AirBridgeCargo sees multiple use cases for drone applications on its expansive home turf in Russia said Andrey Andreev, the carrier’s vice president, during a panel discussion at Cargo Facts EMEA 2020 earlier this month in Frankfurt.

“Covering deliveries over the last mile, is quite an interesting challenge,” Andreev said, referring to the vast distances between cities and distribution centers in Russia. What’s missing however, is a regulatory framework for operating remotely piloted aircraft in Russia.

Carly Morris, head of innovation at IAG Cargo, agreed that advancing drone operations will require regulator focus. Rather than looking to drones to provide a logistics function, IAG Cargo has been trialing drones to improve inventory-management processes. The carrier found it was spending 6,500 hours every year recording bar codes for air waybills. Autonomous drones deployed in IAG Cargo’s Madrid warehouse now handle this task.

In the clip below, Andreev and Morris discuss what drone integration might look like for an airline.