Drone Delivery Takes Off: Flytrex Prepares for Nationwide Growth

Flytrex CEO: 2026 to be pivotal for drone delivery companies

By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill

With the FAA expected to approve a national standard for BVLOS drone flights in the first quarter, Yariv Bash, CEO and founder of Israel-based Flytrex expects 2026 to be a “pivotal year” for the drone delivery industry in the U.S.

In an interview with DroneLife, Bash predicted that Flytrex, one of a handful of UAV delivery companies operating in the country, as well as its leading competitors, would soon begin offering their services in markets across the country.

“I think 2026 is going to be a pivotal year, not just for Flytrex, but for the entire industry. And then it’s going be a question of how fast is this going to be in my town as well?” Bash said.

Recently, Flytrex, whose service areas are largely confined to the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex area, announced its long-term plans to expand its service to the 37 largest metro areas in the U.S. — giving it the ability to provide drone delivery to more than 100 million people.

DFW hub of drone deliveries

Bash said the company plans to begin its expansion in its DFW home base of operations, adding 40 drone delivery service locations in the region over the next 12 months, before expanding into markets in other states.

Over the last several months, the DFW Metroplex area has become one of the biggest hubs for drone delivery in the country, thanks in large part to the creation of the area’s UTM Key Site, a collaborative project created by several drone delivery companies, and UTM service provider ANRA Technologies.

Bash cited several other reasons why he thought the DFW area has become home to such much drone delivery activity.

“DFW is the fourth largest metroplex in the U.S.,” he said. “That’s the main reason why most all delivery companies are actually focusing on Dallas.”

In addition, he cited the region’s favorable year-round weather conditions as well as the high degree of public acceptance for the new technological innovation that drone deliveries represent.

“Municipalities are welcoming, not just for Flytrex, but for other companies as well,” he said.

Recent Flytrex milestones

The current year has seen a great deal of progress and growth for Flytrex. Last May, the FAA granted Flytrex and fellow drone delivery operator Wing the first-ever approval for two UAV companies to conduct BVLOS operations, sharing the same airspace at the same time, leveraging the DFW area’s unmanned aircraft traffic management UTM system.

In June Flytrex and DoorDash announced a partnership allowing the UAV operator to make food deliveries from various restaurants in the metroplex area. The deal allows Flytrex to offer the DFW region’s most extensive operating hours, from 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Central time.

In mid-September Uber Technologies made its first-ever investment in a drone delivery company integrating Flytrex’s UAV delivery services into the Uber Eats platform. The two companies said they plan to launch pilot services in select U.S. markets by the end of the year.

Bash said Flytrex has no current plans to expand its drone delivery business internationally.

“Currently we are very much focused on the U.S. I think that in terms of regulations as well as public acceptance and the business environment, the U.S. is leading the way by far versus anywhere else in the world,” he said. “So, we’d love to continue and focus our reference in the United States.”

Bash said that with the FAA’s blessing to conduct BVLOS flights, his company has all the approvals it needs to begin executing on its ambitious plans to expand its services. In addition, the company is taking other steps to prepare for its planned service expansion. “We’ve already introduced a new drone that’s capable of doing deliveries and pickups directly from restaurants,” he said.

He said he is looking forward to having the FAA implement its long-awaited Part 108 rule, which would establish a standard set of regulations for commercial drone operators to conduct regular BVLOS flights.

“We’re excited about Part 108,” he said. With the implementation of the new rule, the FAA is expected to create a new streamlined process for BVLOS certification without compromising its mission of assuring air safety.

Bash said he does not expect to see the enactment Part 108 trigger the creation of a large number of new drone delivery companies, but it is expected to greatly benefit those companies that have already established themselves in the market.

“We’re not going to see hundreds of new companies flying above. But it does open things up for expansions in the U.S. for us and other players,” he said.

“I’d say until now, drone deliveries had two very big obstacles. One is, of course, regulations. The second obstacle, which I think is even bigger than regulations, is actually doing profitable deliveries.”

He said that ultimately drone delivery companies are not just competing with one another but also with ground-based food delivery services such as DoorDash and Uber Eats.

“That’s the unit economy that you have to be in. And in order to do that, you have to develop an entire system, including the drone, but an entire system that’s capable of delivering a burrito for less than what it costs today,” he said.

Read more:

• Uber Invests in Flytrex to Launch Drone Delivery
• DoorDash and Flytrex Launch Drone Delivery in Dallas-Fort Worth
• BVLOS Transforms Our Entire Business Model says Drone Delivery CEO

Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with almost a quarter-century of experience covering technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P Global Platts, Jim began writing about emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots and drones, and the ways in which they’re contributing to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, a publication of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.