Mesa Air Group has signed an agreement with aerospace technology company Flirtey to order four delivery drones, with an option to order an additional 500 aircraft. The agreement marks Mesa becoming the first scheduled airline to launch drone delivery in the US.
Mesa and Flirtey are initially focusing on the last-mile food delivery industry, enabling Mesa to expand beyond the global airlines market and into the global food service market. The immediate goal of the partnership is to conduct commercial drone deliveries in the last-mile food and beverage market in the US. The parties plan to expand the drone delivery service in the US and New Zealand.
With this agreement, Flirtey, the aircraft designer and manufacturer, is supplying it’s best-in-class technology including the Flirtey Eagle, an electric powered, advanced drone that conducts precision delivery to homes and businesses, and Flirtey’s autonomous software platform that conducts autonomous flight operations, for Mesa to operate commercial drone delivery.
“Mesa is excited to partner with Flirtey to become the first scheduled airline to launch drone delivery in the U.S. Drone delivery 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.
“Flirtey is excited to partner with Mesa to operationalize our best-in-class drone delivery aircraft and autonomous software platform. With Mesa’s operational excellence, we look forward to rapidly expanding drone delivery focusing on the trillion dollar last-mile food delivery market,” said Flirtey Founder and CEO Matthew Sweeny.
