All are trying to lower costs, through electrification or by removing the pilots, to make airborne freight price-competitive over short distances with trucking. The regional air cargo market is limited currently to $50 rush envelopes or urgently needed supplies, says Robin Riedel, an aviation consultant with McKinsey. “There aren’t many people willing to pay ten times more to save a couple of hours over ground,” he says.
One of the biggest factors in whether Pyka and other drone cargo delivery aspirants can lower costs is how many people will be required to look after their aircraft. Currently regulators are expecting one safety monitor to oversee one drone at a time. To cut labor costs, Pyka and others have to convince regulators that one person can safely oversee multiple aircraft simultaneously.
Pyka currently has five crop sprayers flying in Central America. Since July 2021, it’s been conducting trial services for an unnamed company Norcia describes as “one of the largest banana producers on Earth” and recently started working with another. He says both are interested in scaling up to about 100 aircraft each. Pyka, which raised $37 million in Series A funding last year, plans to expand to other Central American countries where its customers have plantations, as well as Brazil.
While Pyka has been able to gain experience by flying in other countries, other companies like Elroy and Beta are looking to start flying sooner through the, which is testing out military uses for commercial electric aircraft.
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