First license for drone delivery test-running granted in E China

HANGZHOU - China's first license for the test-running of drone deliveries has been granted to Antwork Technology, a drone delivery company based in eastern province of Zhejiang, by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

Since the idea of drone deliveries was proposed by Amazon in 2013, leading logistics companies and e-commerce giants in China have been testing the water of the drone-delivery market.

Drone deliveries can help expand coverage of logistics, reduce the pressure on traditional logistics services and cut labor costs.

To ensure flight safety, 90 percent of the routes, which Antwork maps, are over urban rivers, and the drones can also reduce their speed and change routes when faced with emergencies or extreme weather, according to Zhao Liang, CEO of Antwork Technology.

Before Antwork obtained the license, it had conducted more than 20,000 logistical trials in urban and mountainous areas in Zhejiang and passed risk evaluation and flight tests supervised by the CAAC.