Royal Mail, Skyports begin first ‘permanent’ UK drone post delivery

The UK’s Royal Mail and Skyports Drone Services have launched what is being hailed as the nation’s first permanent UAV delivery operation conducted “under existing regulatory frameworks,” with the initiation of postal distribution flights between Scotland’s Orkney Islands. 

Revealed last April as a projected plan, Royal Mail said Tuesday regular postal flights by Skyports had begun within the Orkney chain. Those UAV shuttles are replacing ferry transport that had been relied on to distribute letters and parcels between individual islands after being flown in from the Scottish mainland to the main town of Kirkwall. 

The aerial assets are expected to increase the speed postal transfers to outlying islands – and at lower cost – while also withstanding rough weather in the area that often can make docking of marine vessels too dangerous to attempt.

Read: Skyports to run Orkney’s interisland drone delivery for Royal…