Drone-based package delivery company Flytrex has become the fourth drone logistics provider to be awarded a licence to fly drones beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) by the USA Federal Aviation Administration.
The company says this approval will enable it to expand its service nationwide into the 37 largest metro areas in the US — unlocking the ability to bring drone delivery to over 100 million people.
The BVLOS approval is the culmination of a decade-long journey and years of rigorous testing, where Flytrex began working with the FAA in 2017, navigating an approval process that inherits much of its testing methodology from traditional manned aviation.
"After nearly a decade of development, this BVLOS approval transforms our entire business model," said Yariv Bash, CEO and co-founder of Flytrex.
"We can now outperform any other traditional on-demand delivery method — monitoring fleets of drones from centralised command centers rather than posting observers across delivery zones. With BVLOS, we can now build the infrastructure to bring drone delivery to 100 million Americans."
Throughout its certification process, Flytrex met the stringent FAA requirements including comprehensive safety data analysis, thousands of flight hours, and extensive operational testing.
“The company has demonstrated that its drones can safely share the airspace with other aircraft, both manned and unmanned, meeting the same rigorous safety standards applied to traditional aviation,” Flytrex said in a statement.
It joins Wing (a Google company), Amazon, and Zipline as the only drone delivery services authorised for such operations in the US.
Until now, FAA regulations required visual observers on the ground tracking each drone throughout its flight. But with this new BVLOS approval, Flytrex can now monitor multiple drones remotely from a single operations center, increasing delivery throughput while dramatically reducing operational costs.
With BVLOS approval now in place, the drone company plans to vastly expand its operations in the Dallas Fort Worth area, with the goal of adding dozens of new sites by the end of the year and covering the entire metro area in the next twelve months. In the coming years, the company plans to scale nationwide with the goal of reaching 100 million new users.
“The BVLOS approval represents the culmination of significant operational and commercial progress for Flytrex,” the company said.
“Last month, the company launched integrated drone delivery through the DoorDash app, offering the Dallas region's most extensive operating hours (8:00am to 9:30pm) and industry-leading payload capacity.
“Earlier this year, Flytrex and Wing, a Google company, became the first commercial drone operators in the US to implement automated flight coordination in shared airspace, demonstrating how multiple drone services can operate safely and efficiently in the same communities.
“Together, these achievements—BVLOS authorisation, the DoorDash partnership, and advanced drone traffic management — create the operational foundation needed to transform drone delivery from an innovative pilot program into a scalable, everyday service for millions of Americans.”