More restaurant drone deliveries are hitting the skies in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
DoorDash announced a partnership with Flytrex to begin service in parts of Little Elm and Frisco. Customers can order from dozens of local and national restaurants, from Papa John’s to The Bass Trap. The service says it can reach over 30,000 households and more than 100,000 residents.
This marks Flytrex’s first integration with a third-party app. Previously, the company only offered drone delivery through its own Flytrex app with local restaurants. Now, customers can order directly on DoorDash. Eligible orders will show a drone delivery icon at checkout. The drones can carry up to 5.5 pounds and travel up to five miles roundtrip.
“Drone delivery offers suburban families speed, affordability, and contactless convenience, getting hot or cold food delivered right to your backyard,” said Yariv Bash, CEO and co-founder of Flytrex. “For busy families, it’s a game-changer that fits their daily routine.”
DoorDash announced a partnership with Flytrex to begin service in parts of Little Elm and Frisco.
DoorDash is also working with Wing, a drone delivery subsidiary of Alphabet (Google’s parent company). Along with the Dallas-Fort Worth area, they’ve also launched services in Charlotte, North Carolina and southwest Virginia, following a successful rollout in Australia in 2022.
“The next phase of drone delivery is all about convenience, driven by expanded capabilities that unlock a broader range of use cases,” said Harrison Shih, head of product for DoorDash Labs. “Larger payloads and longer operating hours allow us to serve more customers more efficiently than ever. By expanding the operational envelope of autonomous delivery, we’re moving closer to making drone delivery a scalable, reliable option for everyday local commerce.”
Drone delivery continues to gain momentum in the restaurant and retail spaces. Walmart recently announced it would expand its drone service with Wing from 18 Supercenters in Dallas to more than 100 stores across major U.S. cities.
DoorDash partnered with Wing for drone deliveries in Dallas-Fort Worth, Charlotte, North Carolina and southwest Virginia, following a successful launch in Australia.
The sector has also ramped up since the FAA issued new rules last year allowing multiple drone companies to operate beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) in the same airspace over Dallas-Fort Worth, without requiring on-ground visual observers.
Related: Drones Set to Transform Restaurant Delivery
In a previous interview, Robin Riedel, who co-leads the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility, called this a major milestone for the industry.
“Over the last years, there was a lot of talk about regulation being the last barrier,” he said. “It forced visual observers, which made operations slower and more expensive. That argument doesn’t really hold anymore. We now have BVLOS exemptions granted to most major players.”
Riedel said the focus has now shifted to developing viable business and operating models that can scale.
Beyond Flytrex and Wing, drone company Zipline is also turning heads in the restaurant space, delivering for brands like Sweetgreen and Mendocino Farms, to name a couple.
With drones buzzing higher, your next meal could be flying in sooner than you think, no doorbell needed.
