Mesa Air Group has signed an agreement with the Flirtey aerospace technology company to procure drones that will be deployed for “last-mile” home delivery of food and beverage products. Plans are to launch the service in Nevada before expanding elsewhere in the United States and New Zealand.
In addition to initial procurement of four electric powered, advanced Flirtey Eagle drones, the deal includes a software platform that conducts autonomous flight operations. There is an option to acquire up to 500 aircraft to enable rapid expansion.
Phoenix, Arizona-headquartered Mesa has experience as a regional air carrier with approximately 450 daily departures across the USA, while Reno, Nevada-based Flirtey has extensive knowhow from having already conducted over 6,000 drone delivery flights in the USA.
“We are excited to partner with Flirtey to become the first scheduled airline to launch drone delivery in the United States. This is a huge market and it’s here now. This is the future of small package last mile delivery,” said Mesa Chairman and CEO Jonathan Ornstein.
“With Mesa’s operational excellence, we look forward to rapidly expanding drone delivery focusing on the trillion dollar last-mile food delivery market,” said Matthew Sweeny, Flirtey’s founder and chief executive officer.
Mesa Airlines provides scheduled passenger service to 114 cities in 39 states, the District of Columbia, the Bahamas, Canada and Mexico as well as cargo runs out of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. It has fleet of 160 aircraft with approximately 393 daily departures supported by 3,700 employees. All of its flights are operated as either American Eagle, United Express, or DHL Express.
Flirtey conducted the first ever FAA-approved drone delivery in 2015. More recently, it became the first company to perform an autonomous drone delivery to a home, as well as the first to perform commercial drone delivery and pioneer automated external defibrillator (AED) drone delivery in the United States. It has worked with NASA, Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, Remote Area Medical, New Zealand Land Search & Rescue, Domino’s and 7-Eleven to conduct deliveries of medicine to rural healthcare clinics, ship-to-shore drops of medical samples and deliveries of retail and e-commerce items to consumer homes.
