Xponential 2023 Making Aviation Profitable

Today in Denver at Xponential 2023, a panel of experts discussed a topic on the minds of everyone in the industry: how do we make aviation profitable?

In the last several years, investment in the drone industry has grown significantly.  With that investment, however, comes expectation: eventually, regardless of manufacturing challenges, regulations, technology hangups and adoption hurdles, companies have to figure out how to make money.

In January of 2018, early industry players PrecisionHawk received $75 million, at that time the largest funding round in the industry: but over the five years since, the company struggled to find profitability, eventually merging with a European geospatial firm in March of 2023.  Other early industry names including AirMap, Skyward Verizon, CyPhy Works, and Airxos have all been closed down after several successful – but not profitable – years.

More recently, investment amounts have grown.  U.S. drone manufacture Skydio has…