After more than five years of highly successful drone operations in the state of Queensland, Australia, Wing’s delivery operations are finally expanding to another Australian state. Wing, the drone delivery arm affiliated with Google, announced in July 2024 that it was heading to the Melbourne area. This makes Wing’s first operation in Victoria, Australia.
Wing deliveries in Victoria will be available to some households in the greater Melbourne area. Given the circuit that Wing will operate in Victoria, this will mark Wing’s largest approved delivery area in Australia to date.
For deliveries to Melbourne, Wing will continue to work with DoorDash. Wing’s partnership with DoorDash first kicked off in November 2022 in Logan, Australia. Logan, a city in Queensland, has been one of the main locations for Wing’s Australian operations until now. Through it, authorized customers can place orders for certain items eligible for drone delivery directly through their DoorDash apps.
The new Melbourne expansion will follow a similar drone delivery model already underway at Grand Plaza Mall in Logan City, Australia. This is called the store-to-door model. With it, Wing sets up what he calls a “drone nest” with a store or mall. From there, the drones depart directly from the store or shopping center in question – rather than from a separate warehouse. (Here’s a deep dive into how Wing’s mall rooftop deliveries work.)
With its expansion in the Melbourne Wing, it will locate its first Nest at Eastland Shopping Centre, located in Melbourne’s eastern suburb of Ringwood, Victoria, Australia. It is considered to be the fourth largest shopping center in Australia and has more than 340 retail stores and services. This location will unlock access to drone delivery for over 250,000 residents of the Melbourne area.
Such a large area – and so many potential customers – means a greater reliance on autonomy. This in turn means less reliance on humans. Wing says its Melbourne operations will have a 50:1 drone-to-pilot ratio, meaning one pilot will oversee up to 50 drones in the air at any given time. That’s a three-fold increase over Wing’s previous drone delivery approvals.
Related reading: The new Wing delivery drone prototypes include a design that carries 7 lb packages
Wing drone supply status in 2024
In a July 2024 statement, Wing called 2024 “the year of drone delivery.” And it very well may be.
Other recent Wing drone delivery expansions this month included partnerships between Wing, Apian, Blackrock Health, Private Hospital St. Vincent’s, Medtronic. With that, these companies are working on trial deliveries of all kinds of medical supplies and equipment to hospitals around Dublin using drones. Although this is quite a small test with only an estimated 100 flights per week.
And Wing is also growing in the US. Following news that Walmart is integrating drone delivery directly into its own Walmart app, Wing has officially launched the service from two Texas Walmart locations (Arlington and Fort Worth stores). As a result, Wing and Walmart now offer drone delivery from six locations to homes in more than a dozen locations throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
Earlier this year, Wing also brought a DoorDash partnership that first started in Australia to Christiansburg, Virginia. With this, eligible residents who order specifically from Wendy’s via DoorDash can choose to have their Frosty, Baconator or other Wendy’s order delivered via drone.
Oh, and if you’ve never tried DoorDash before, you can use this link to get $5 off your first DoorDash order — whether it’s delivered by drone or not.
Related reading: 11 beloved restaurants you can order drone delivery from in America
Another increase in drone deliveries in 2024
Of course, Wing isn’t the only company expanding its drone delivery offerings this year. We also got critical deals this month on Amazon’s planned drone delivery offering in Arizona’s Phoenix metro area. Amazon is also currently working to expand its existing drone deliveries to College Station, Texas.
Meanwhile, Zipline (which is believed to be the largest drone delivery operator in the world) hit a huge milestone in April 2024 when it made its millionth commercial drone delivery to a real customer.
And even smaller players are innovating in a big way. For example, DroneUp pioneered an impressive new Ecosystem platform in 2024. This platform includes self-contained units (the size of two parking spaces) serving as centers for pickup and delivery of mini packages. DroneUp can place them basically anywhere around the city. From there, customers can pick up their drone-delivered packages without actually touching the drone itself.