By Adam Woodworth, CEO, Wing
We’re kicking off 2024 by making drone delivery a reality for even more people: Wing and Walmart are expanding service to millions of customers, leveraging Wing’s airspace approvals that facilitate service across the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) community.
Wing and Walmart will launch our newest drone delivery locations in the coming months and plan to complete the expansion within the year.
Last August, Wing and Walmart launched service together at two locations in DFW – reaching 60,000 homes via drone delivery. In our first 4 months of service, the response from Walmart customers has been overwhelmingly positive, using the service to order a range of products, including quick meals, groceries, household essentials, and over-the-counter medicines.
And as our customers in Frisco and Lewisville know, on average those deliveries arrived in under 30 minutes and provided a convenient way to get what they needed, when they needed it.
“I had a Walmart delivery from Wing when we were running low on key ingredients for [a] recipe. We were so impressed that our eggs were delivered safely and likely had a safer journey than traveling by car in our trunk.” – Customer, Frisco, Texas.
“We ordered through the app and received fresh guacamole and some candy within 15 mins. The kids enjoyed the excitement of watching the drone on the app until it dropped our package safely in our driveway. Will definitely use it again. Much quicker than a drive to the store.” – Customer, Frisco, Texas.
Our first months delivering to Walmart customers have made one thing clear: Demand for drone delivery is real. For instance, on a given Sunday, Walmart customers placed over 130 orders to ensure they were prepped and ready for the big game – receiving items like chicken, sour cream, avocados and limes.
Via the Walmart store in Frisco, our regular customers order on average ~2 times per week – with our top 25 percent customers averaging ~3 orders per week. Our average flight time is 5 minutes.
Wing’s drone delivery service offers a safe and convenient way to get your everyday needs (or last-minute forgotten items!) delivered nearly instantly, and our recent regulatory approvals mean we will be able to reach more customers throughout DFW.
In 2019, Wing was the first drone delivery company in the United States to receive a Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate. Now, Wing’s new environmental approval in the DFW metroplex marks the first time the FAA has approved an entire metro area for drone delivery.
While Wing has already been serving customers at up to a 6-mile radius from nests in Frisco and Lewisville, Wing’s recent summary grant enables us to move toward beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations without visual observers across DFW and similar airspace surrounding other major US cities, adding to the momentum of the drone delivery industry at large. This marks a paradigm shift in the way US regulators are approaching approvals for these types of advanced BVLOS drone operations.
We believe 2024 will be the year of drone delivery – and our growing service with Walmart is a huge step forward.
“Congratulations to Wing and Walmart on a growing partnership,” said City of Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney. “In 2022, Wing picked Frisco to launch its first commercial drone delivery service in a major US metro area.
“We consider our entire community an innovation lab and our residents embrace this service. Nowadays, Wing is more than a novelty in Frisco.
“The drone delivery service has evolved into a welcome, daily convenience for essentials like recipe ingredients, eggs, limes or over-the-counter medicines. The ease and efficiency of Wing’s drone delivery service enhances quality of life.”
