Skye Air Mobility to expand fleet to 120 drones in 12-15 months

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Drone delivery logistics firm Skye Air Mobility on Tuesday said it plans to ramp up its fleet size to about 120 drones in 12-15 months from the current four as it chases growth opportunities in key areas such as healthcare and diagnostics.

Ankit Kumar, CEO of Skye Air Mobility, said the company has crossed the milestone of 1,000 flights in six months of operations, and is looking to reach a level of one lakh flights over the next 12-15 months.

Skye Air Mobility — which is looking to raise USD 1 million (around Rs 7.6 crore) in a seed fund round — is eyeing opportunities in sectors such as healthcare, diagnostics, hyperlocal and e-commerce deliveries, as well as agri-commodities, he added.

"We aim to do one million kilometers of delivery in next 12-15 months. It will be nearly one lakh flights that we will be doing in the next 12-15 months, so the growth will be exponential,” Kumar said.

The company is eyeing a fleet size of 120 "with different capacity of drones in different hubs, which will be catering to numerous spokes”.

The announcement on the seed funding round will be made shortly and another round would happen in 8-9 months.

Kumar further said the liberalised Drone Rules announced by the government in August 2021 are "progressive" and has set the stage for rapid growth of the market.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has eased the rules regarding drone operations in the country by reducing the number of forms that needs to be filled to operate them, and decreasing the types of fees charged from the operators.

The drone delivery startup has joined hands with diagnostics chain Redcliffe Labs to take healthcare and pathology services to remote areas of the country, using drone technology.