Sentosa and foodpanda SG take food delivery to the skies via drones

Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) has partnered with ST Engineering and foodpanda to pilot drone food delivery from Sentosa’s restaurants and eateries to St. John’s Island, one of Singapore’s Southern Islands. The pilot will study the feasibility and operational requirements of such drone food deliveries, including the payment system for the service. Through the pilot, SDC will also look into offering guests more food options in future, as they extend their Sentosa getaway to the other nearby Southern Islands.

Drone food deliveries could enable F&B establishments in Sentosa to reach a broader base of customers in the Southern Islands which do not yet have F&B amenities. This also provides additional business support for participating Sentosa establishments as they emerge from the pandemic.

The drone food delivery pilot will be conducted until 9 April 2022, involving a select group of trial participants on St. John’s Island. Under the pilot, participants will be able to order freshly prepared meals from a variety of participating F&B establishments in Sentosa via the foodpanda app, which would then be transported by foodpanda riders to the take-off point at Tanjong Beach. From there, the meals will take a seven-minute flight to a designated delivery point on St John’s Island. The drones can withstand weights of up to 10kg, and fly for 7km. As an additional safety measure, the flight path of the drone will be away from popular areas on Sentosa and St. John’s Island.

The drone food delivery pilot is the eighth innovation project under the Sentosa x Enterprise Scheme, which aims to create opportunities to test-bed ideas, concepts, and technologies while leveraging the island’s geographical attributes and environment. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Sentosa and foodpanda for comment. 

Lee Cheh Hsien, divisional director (planning), SDC said that, over the course of the pandemic, it has been exploring innovative solutions that can support business establishments in Sentosa, while also enhancing the leisure experience of Sentosa’s guests. "Our latest Sentosa X Enterprise Scheme pilot has the potential to achieve these twin objectives. We are excited to embark on this pilot with ST Engineering and foodpanda to test the viability of live ordering and stability of delivery via drones. We will study the outcome of this pilot. Should drone food deliveries be operationally and commercially feasible, we hope that this service can be extended to our guests visiting the neighbouring Southern Islands,” he added.

Miro Banovic, head of logistics, foodpanda Singapore said that being in the business of convenience, it is always looking for ways to elevate the quick commerce experience for merchant partners, customers, and riders. “Following our previous successful drone trial with ST Engineering, we are thrilled to now be working with SDC as well to realise drone deliveries for actual customer orders, and see this as an encouraging step forward to making drone deliveries a commercial reality. Such drone deliveries also complement our rider fleet and allows us to deliver food to people in remote or previously inaccessible areas,” he said.

The pilot is also foodpanda’s continuation of its expansion into drone deliveries, following a successful trial in August 2020 where five packets of Ayam Penyet (“smashed” fried chicken) were drone-delivered to a PACC Offshore Services Holdings Vessel via pandaFly. The delivery took off from Marina South Pier and was completed within 10 minutes. 

Separately, airasia received the green light to conduct remote drone pilot training in January this year. This development supports the upcoming drone pilot project for the delivery of goods from the company's eCommerce platforms, using automated drones. Group CEO of AirAsia Aviation Limited, Bo Lingam, said then that the training programme provides an opportunity to upskill its Allstars and offer new programmes for the broader community, as well as supporting the drone industry in providing quality training to have more qualified remote pilots in Malaysia.

Photo Courtesy: foodpanda Singapore

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