MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Today, Matternet announced it is embarking on the next chapter of its drone operations in Switzerland. Starting January 1, 2023, Matternet will take over drone business activities from Swiss Post, in addition to providing its technology platform and operating customer drone delivery networks.
“We thank Swiss Post for the partnership and all that we accomplished together over the last five years,” said Andreas Raptopoulos, CEO of Matternet. “With the extensive experience we have gained from operating drone delivery networks over Swiss cities since 2017, we are now ready to take the next step toward our vision of city-wide, ultra-fast and environmentally-friendly drone delivery networks in Switzerland.”
Matternet considers Switzerland one of the most advanced countries in the world for scaled drone delivery operations, enabled by a robust regulatory framework established by the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) and Switzerland’s focus on world-class, efficient logistics and environmentally-friendly technologies.
During its successful five-year partnership with Swiss Post, Matternet provided its urban drone delivery platform and operated commercial routes for Swiss Post customers. Matternet and Swiss Post achieved multiple world-first milestones together, such as operating the first BVLOS commercial drone delivery route over a city in Lugano (2017) and the first BVLOS commercial drone delivery route in a major European city in Zurich (2018).
Matternet now plans to build on this foundation to launch, alongside a group of private and public entities, the first European city-wide drone delivery network in Switzerland. The network’s initial focus will be healthcare logistics for B2B and B2C applications. Further details will be announced in the coming months.
Matternet’s vision is that the city of the future will rely on a city-wide drone delivery network to fulfill urgent logistics needs for healthcare and help transition on-demand ecommerce to a sustainable mode of transport. Matternet announced its first network in partnership with the Department of Health of Abu Dhabi (link) in September 2021.
About Matternet
Matternet has developed best-in-class technology for on-demand, aerial delivery in cities. The company designs, builds and operates its technology in partnership with healthcare and logistics organizations. In 2017, Matternet became the first company in the world to be authorized for commercial BVLOS operations of drone logistics networks over cities in Switzerland. In 2019, Matternet and UPS partnered to provide drone delivery services to US healthcare systems, and together enabled the first FAA-Approved Drone Airline in the US, UPS Flight Forward. In 2021, Matternet announced its first city-wide drone delivery network in partnership with the Department of Health of Abu Dhabi. To date, Matternet technology has enabled over 20,000 commercial flights. For more information about Matternet, please visit: https://mttr.net.
