Carrier and partner Drone Delivery Canada sign commercial agreement with Canadian manufacturing company.
Air Canada Cargo’s foray into drone delivery has yielded its first customer.
In June this year, the Canadian airline unit inked a 10-year deal with Toronto-based Drone Delivery Canada under the terms of which it markets and sell the firm’s services in Canada.
It marked the first time that a major airline has demonstrated such a strong level of support for rone delivery and could perhaps signal the beginnings of a concerted move by the air cargo industry to offer new e-commerce related services via this nascent transport segment.
DDC recently announced that it had signed a commercial agreement with Vision Profile Extrusions for the provision of a drone delivery platform which the manufacturing company will use between its properties in Vaughan, Ontario.
“Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, DDC will deploy its DroneSpot takeoff and landing zones as well as additional drone flight infrastructure on the Vision sites, and deploy its Sparrow cargo drone, with a capacity of up to 10lbs, on defined flight routes between Vision’s properties in Vaughan, Ontario, which routes have already been approved by Transport Canada,” it said in a statement.
Flights will be remotely monitored by DDC from its new commercial operations centre also located in Vaughan, Ontario. DDC expects to begin providing drone delivery services under the agreement in the fourth quarter of this year, after deployment of the client site infrastructure is completed.
Vision will pay DDC a monthly fee for each drone route and will also allow DDC to showcase its services platform on the Vision sites so that DDC and Air Canada Cargo may promote drone delivery services.
The services will be provided by DDC for an initial term of 12 months, with additional, successive, one-year terms to follow unless the agreement is formally terminated.
“We are pleased to be working with Vision Profile Extrusions Limited and our sales agent Air Canada Cargo to roll out our first paid commercial project using our proven Sparrow drone, patented FLYTE system, and newly built commercial operations centre,” said Michael Zahra, president and CEO of DDC.
“Our focus is to commercialize our industry-leading solution. We are pleased to see the first green shoots of our plans realized and drive revenue for our shareholders. We have a robust funnel of opportunities and we expect this will be the first of many to come globally. I would like to thank our employees and partners whose dedication has allowed us to achieve this first, albeit important milestone.”
Commenting on the tie-up with DDC, Tim Strauss, Air Canada’s vice president, Cargo, said: “We believe drone technology has the potential to offer the cargo community cost-effective solutions to complex issues related to supply chain distribution in non-traditional markets, including remote communities in Canada.
“It is another way Air Canada Cargo is innovating and engaging with new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and digital technologies, which are transforming the cargo landscape.”
Source: Lloyd’s
