Irish startup plans to launch UK's first takeaway food delivery service using drones

Air deliveries like this in the US will soon become a reality in the UK. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images

An Irish start-up plans to deliver the UK's first takeaway meals using drones after applying for a license with the airspace regulator.

Dublin-based Manna, which already delivers food and groceries and coffee to Ireland using drone aircraft, plans to launch its first service in the UK in the first half of next year.

The launch is expected to kick off a race among tech companies, with Amazon and Google subsidiary Wing stepping up operations for delivery by air.

Drone delivery is considered faster and cheaper than human couriers, although the much-touted technology has taken longer than expected to become part of everyday life.

Bobby Healy, Manna's chief executive, said the company had submitted a detailed license application to the Civil Aviation Authority.

It hopes to launch in a British suburb next year and reach around 100,000 households.

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Mr Healy declined to say where in the UK but said it would require 10 to 15 aircraft making 500 to 1,000 deliveries a day.

He said: “The UK is probably our the most important market on the European continent, both in terms of cultural relevance and market scale. The UK makes over 900 million takeaway food deliveries a year.”

Britain had previously been seen as an attractive location for drone operators, with Amazon choosing a site near Cambridge for its first trials almost a decade ago.

However, the company never began commercial operations, but instead moved testing to the United States before making its first deliveries this year.

The CAA has recently made progress in allowing the use of autonomous drones, adopting a safety standard similar to the EU standard and issuing limited licences. Manna was licensed for a limited trial at a technology festival earlier this year.

However, Mr Healy said the regulator currently only licenses drones in areas where there are no other aircraft, limiting British market potential. congested airspace.

Manna has made over 160,000 drone deliveries in Ireland from places like Tesco and Subway, and in only one incident did a drone open its parachute.

Orders are accepted via the app and loaded onto the drone in the store. The drone then hovers over the destination, dropping the payload from the air.

The company says most orders are delivered in less than three minutes and that drones make less noise than cars, reducing traffic on the roads.

Manna, which manufactures its drones in Wales , has raised nearly $30 million (£25 million) from investors including UK venture capital fund Molten Ventures and Patrick and John Collison, the Irish brothers behind payments giant Stripe.