Royal Mail

Royal Mail and Skyports Drone Services commenced the Orkney I-Port operation in July 2023.

They established the drone delivery project in partnership with Orkney Islands Council Harbour Authority and Loganair.

The project is funded by the Department for Transport’s Freight Innovation Fund.

Royal Mail and Skyports Drone Services have established a daily inter-island mail distribution service between three islands on Orkney.

The project will initially operate for three months, with the intent to extend in the future.

This is the first UK drone delivery project which can be conducted on a permanent basis under existing regulatory frameworks.

This is due to the unique landscape of Orkney and the proximity of the islands to one another.

This allows for flights to be conducted using extended visual line of sight (EVLOS) permissions rather than beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) permissions.

Letters and parcels are transported from Royal Mail’s Kirkwall delivery office to Stromness, from where Skyports Drone Services conduct drone deliveries to Royal Mail staff on Graemsay and Hoy.

From these locations, postal workers then carry out their usual island delivery routes.