Fast-moving drone delivery startup Flytrex had an eventful 2022, during which it considerably expanded its zones of operation as well as its list of retailers and restaurant partners. Today the company released its annual barometer of activity showing a corresponding jump in clients served last year – a whopping seven-fold increase over 2021 to “21,350 orders” flown.
That surge in activity issues from the authorization Flytrex received from the Federal Aviation Agency in March to begin its automated drone delivery services in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Then in July, the company got the green light to expand its zone of operation to two nautical miles around those Texas suburbs covered by its Granbury station, as well as over the North Carolina cities of Fayetteville, Raeford, and Holly Springs it previously worked in.
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That more than doubled the number of potential households that can receive Flytrex drone delivery services from 40,000 to around 100,000. It has since broadened that to a total of 140,000, fueling the boom of business that CEO Yariv Bash had earlier told DroneDJ would make 2022 a breakout year for the company and overall sector.
“The drone delivery industry as a whole has progressed immensely over the past year, and this snapshot is a testament to its soaring future,” said Bash in releasing Flytrex’s 2022 Yardstick of activity. “We strive to provide the utmost convenience and satisfaction to everyone who uses our service, and we’re thrilled to see that our customers are as delighted and excited about drone delivery as we are. Building on this momentum, we look forward to expanding our service and eventually providing the same level of quality practicality across suburban America.”
Highlights of those results include:
- Flytrex delivered more than 85,000 items by drone across 21,350 orders.
- The average time from takeoff to delivery was 3:32 minutes.
- The fastest time from order to delivery was 12:13 minutes.
- On October 14, Flytrex had a record high volume of one order every five minutes.
- Flytrex had over 4,000 unique users in 2022, a 765% increase from 2021.
- Flytrex’s biggest fan placed a total of 532 orders last year.
Those numbers represent big increases over Flytrex activity in 2021, and gave some indication of what drone delivery customers are requesting most when ordering.
Top all-around items flown to were fries, turkey sandwiches, and burrito bowls, while favorite grocery goods were bananas, sports drinks, milk, and chocolate bars.
Under the Flytrex rubric of “Favorite Cuisine,” leading drone delivery orders were for sandwiches and salads, chicken wings, and Mexican food. In the grocery section, the biggest aerial sellers were fresh produce, dairy and eggs, and pantry goods.
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In something of a blow to hardening stereotypes about what people most commonly – and lamely – summon via drone delivery, coffee (and tea) ranked way down the list with only 7.2%, while the reputedly hugely demanded (and ergo notorious) toilet paper wasn’t even mentioned in the grocery category – presumably exiled into insignificance within the catch-all “other” category fetching just 10.7%.
As big as 2022 was for the company, this year stands to see its activities increase even more this year.
In January, Flytrex and its longtime UAV piloting partner Causey Aviation Unmanned were granted Standard Part 135 Air Carrier Certification from the FAA, which allows them to operate and complete long-range on-demand commercial drone deliveries virtually anywhere in the United States.
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