Residents will soon see Swoop Aero in Christchurch: New Partnership for Urban Network Drone Deliveries

by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian M. Crosby

Today, air logistics leader Swoop Aero announced the formation of a partnership with ChristchurchNZ’s Urban Development team in order to create a network that will include Swoop Aero’s Aviary, an autonomous docking station for a fleet of drones that blends landing infrastructure, charging technology, payload exchange, and a user interface to allow for the seamless scaling of integrated drone logistics.

Swoop Aero has carried out upwards of 13,000 Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations since 2017, completing more than 750,000 deliveries across the globe. Becoming the first company in the world to deliver a vaccine via a commercial drone operation in 2018, Swoop Aero worked alongside the Government of Vanuatu and UNICEF, with funding from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT),  to raise child immunization rates across the country by utilizing drone networks to provide healthcare access to remote communities. Deployed across 3 continents, Swoop Aero‘s technology platform has seen use in the UK, Australia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Malawi and other countries.
Swoop Aero in Christchurch

“We have proven our capabilities in remote and rural areas, ” said Eric Peck, CEO of Swoop Aero. “This partnership will develop and implement the concept of an urban drone logistics network  in a modern, future-facing city bringing us closer to our goal to providing a service accessible by 100 million people in 2025”

In its partnership with ChristchurchNZ, Swoop Aero will rely on the experience of the agency’s Urban Development team in order to design a concept for a first-of-its-kind, city-wide urban air logistics network.

“This partnership is a natural fit for an urban development team within an economic development agency,” said Cath Carter, Christchurch’s GM of Urban Development. “Urban development is traditionally about unlocking the economic potential of places, land and buildings. This partnership expands that ambition to urban skies.”

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Ian attended Dominican University of California, where he received a BA in English in 2019. With a lifelong passion for writing and storytelling and a keen interest in technology, he is now contributing to DroneLife as a staff writer.