Wing Aviation is no longer delivering groceries and other products via drone to Australians. The company confirmed the disappointing news to Image Matrix Tech with the following statement:
“Wing ceased its drone delivery service in Australia earlier this year to focus on increased demand and the pace of scale in the United States,” said a Wing spokesperson.
After Australian Aviation broke the news during the week, we checked in with Alphabet representatives in Australia.
“Although Wing is no longer offering a delivery service in Australia, the company has retained staff in-country to support our global operations.”
There was no big announcement, nothing. You wouldn’t know if you visited the Wing website that deliveries ceased months ago. Everything looks fine until you realise the latest local story is from 2024.
In 2022, I shot a documentary about the service that was actually sponsored by Wing. You can see it below. I was excited to see this technology put to the test in Australia. Wing had a presence in the ACT, Queensland, and Victoria, with partnerships with DoorDash and Coles, plus a number of small businesses.
You could buy anything, as long as it was around a kilo in weight. Coffee, hot food, sweets, even over-the-counter pharmacy items. During the pandemic, it was doing a roaring trade in Canberra from what I saw, but in the years that followed, the deliveries were gradually stopped nationwide.
Wing had big plans for Australia but just couldn’t go mainstream. It’s hard to pin down why the company ultimately pulled the pin because there are many factors at play. Getting airspace access is not easy for a start. The limited carrying capacity of the drones is also an issue, and then there’s also the noise. A one-off flight over a backyard had little impact, but when you start getting several in one day, you can understand the irritation from neighbours. It also cost a lot of money to operate.
All these factors aren’t stopping Wing from powering ahead in the United States. The company continues to refine the technology and use cases. It’s a huge shame they couldn’t make it work in Australia because I see great opportunities in rural areas as well as cities.
If Wing can make drone deliveries work across the US, I see no reason why they can’t resume services in Australia in the future. We need to keep in the tech game in this country, and that means making things like drones work for us like they will for the rest of the world.
