Zahra highlights Drone Delivery Canada’s operations at Edmonton Airport

[caption id="attachment_75011" align="alignright" width="300"] Michael Zahra, President & CEO at Drone Delivery Canada (DDC)[/caption] Drone Delivery Canada (DDC) made headlines in 2019 with the news it would be the first cargo drone operator with a hub at a major airport. While drones at airports have mostly been a disruption to operations so far, the Canadian drone developer announced in October it would establish a hub at Edmonton International Airport (YEG) and work with the airport to build out flight zones in controlled airspace. Air Cargo World spoke with DDC President and CEO Michael Zahra to learn more about this new drone operational model and what it adds to YEG. ACW: You recently announced the agreement with the Edmonton Regional Airports Authority. What was that process like from your side? MZ: That was an opportunity that was brought to the table by Air Canada, who is our commercial partner in Canada and acts as a reseller of our system. We went to visit the Edmonton International Airport (YEG), which also operates Villeneuve Airport nearby, and we were quite impressed with them for a variety of reasons. They were very tech-savvy and belong to a few local associations, so they really understood technology and the value of moving forward. They also had a fair bit of experience with drones, not for cargo but for wildlife control, and for inspecting the runway for cracks and needed repairs. The fact that they had experience with drones at an active international airport was obviously useful. Also, their property is 7,000 acres and on that property, there are a number of businesses. That will be the first phase of the project: to do cargo deliveries within the property, and after a few months of proving that, we will go off the property. It fit what we were looking for, and they were looking to move forward, and it ended up being a good fit for us and it’s an unprecedented deal, globally. There’s no such other arrangement globally, as we build out this logistics hub at the airport. ACW: It’s very unusual for drone operations to be approved in controlled airspace, as yours have been. What types of routes do you envision operating with drones at YEG? MZ: To back up for a second, we do have experience operating in controlled airspace during our Moosonee, Ontario, project, which we did as a proof of concept September of 2018, and also in New York at Griffiss International Airport (RME), alongside the FAA. To answer your question regarding Edmonton, the first phase is going to be moving cargo around at the airport. They have a number of companies at the airport. There’s a cannabis licensed producer, there’s a Costco, there’s a hotel, there are a number of retail outlets and, obviously, a number of cargo companies. Moving things around within the airport for those parties will start off with the Sparrow, DDC’s smallest drone, in the first quarter. And then, simultaneously we will be looking for new customers going off-airport. The Sparrow has a range of 30 kilometers, but our larger drones, which are coming out in 2020, have a range of up to 200 kilometers and can handle up to 400 pounds. ACW: You’re also pursuing some diverse projects, from your work with DSV and its Ontario office to the Moose Cree First Nation project. How does drone deployment and infrastructure differ between those types of projects? MZ: The infrastructure itself — the hardware and the software and the process — is not that different, regardless of the application. The applications are different. They could be own-use like manufacturing company Vision Profile; they could be a courier company like Purolator, FedEx, UPS or freight forwarder DSV that want to provide this as a service to their customers, so they’re not necessarily using it for themselves. There are also medical applications, which are more social applications, such as the Moose Cree First Nation’s application. They’re all different applications, but the infrastructure and the deployment are similar. We have scouting visits with our engineers to make sure that we understand the airspace, safety concerns and where we’re going to be flying. Our operational model is very controlled, very disciplined and safe, because some of the cargo we’re moving is very high value. So we fly from a depot to a depot and we need to visit, to make sure the system is going to fit for the application. This feature originally appeared in the February issue of Air Cargo World . You can read the full digital issue here .

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