On 22nd September 2021, Matternet declared a city-spanning drone delivery route for the swift transport of medical commodities in Abu Dhabi. This Matternet deal is in collaboration with a logistics company, SkyGo, and the Abu Dhabi Department of Health (DoH). The delivery network will enhance the links of the Kingdom’s health environment and recognize it as a global pioneer in advanced air transport.
To inculcate its services in the Abu Dhabi market, Matternet has partnered with SkyGo, a UAE firm with an abundance of knowledge in Abu Dhabi’s healthcare domain. The former is also an expert in the logistics and circulation of goods in the Arabsphere.
Matternet’s drone delivery service for Abu Dhabi’s healthcare supply chain
Matternet, a US-based drone logistics management company, will work its technology under SkyGo’s Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) license for drone delivery. The former will deliver high-value goods like COVID19 blood samples, lab samples, and vaccines athwart the Kingdom’s geography.
In August, Matternet emerged as the foremost drone firm in the United States of America to initiate air transport for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID19 vaccine via a drone delivery system.
The Matternet drone delivery network in Abu Dhabi will facilitate a quicker turnaround time of pathological and diagnostic samples. It will prove to emerge as an unswerving means to deliver time-crucial supplies. The drone service is dubbed to be a 24/7 functioning operation and will be a vital facet of Abu Dhabi’s logistics set-up.
Matternet and SkyGo are brainstorming strategies to induce forty new drone ports in Abu Dhabi by the end of the initial year of the operation. This endeavor will not only prove to be a more efficient way for healthcare domains to improve, but also will inhibit the amount of traffic created by delivery vehicles on the roads of Abu Dhabi. It will facilitate a greener Abu Dhabi by the cessation of air pollution, carbon footprint, and vehicle cramming.
Matternet and SkyGo have ended the primary phase of drone testing in the country. The firms recently hosted a live demonstration of the drone service in the DoH headquarters.
The demo flight transported a PCR test (belonging to a live patient) from Zayed Sports City to a lab with a wholesome chain of custody tracking through Matternet’s Terminal and Mission Control applications. The firms estimate the testing to be completed by the end of 2021 and commence all commercial flights in the first quarter of 2022.