The skies over Dubai are starting to buzz with drones operated by a Chinese company that has been licensed to deliver fast food, pharmaceuticals and other products to customers across the emirate.
Keeta Drone held a launch event on Tuesday that was attended by Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid. The prince, who is also the UAE’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, was so impressed that he immediately authorized a 33% expansion of Keeta’s initial coverage area.
Keeta is a subsidiary of Beijing-based Meituan, a shopping platform and tech developer active in retail, restaurants, travel and entertainment. The drone itself can carry a payload of 2.5 kilograms and travel up to four kilometers per trip.
Across China, Meituan’s drones have become a popular means of ordering fried chicken from KFC through an app that can also be used to buy hot coffee, groceries and prescription drugs.
In an interview with The Circuit, Keeta President Yinian Mao talked about how the company managed to become the first drone delivery service to start flying in Dubai and its plans to launch its six-propeller aircraft into markets across the Middle East.
What are your expansion plans beyond Dubai in the Middle East?
We have been looking at different areas where we can deploy our kiosks. We see a lot of synergy here with medical supply, diagnostics, medicine, prescriptions, all these things. So that’s why we’re going to focus on two things. One is food and beverage. That’s our strength. And then the medical side. We then plan to expand to quite a few areas within Dubai. That’s for the next year, 2025. If we are looking beyond 2025, we are looking at other GCC countries, as well as in MENA.
Are you looking into hiring specialists from the UAE who can fly the drones?
Yes, for operating the drones. We are making expansion plans. We need maintenance crews. We need technicians. We need a skilled labor force. We need all this expertise.
Can you tell us what kind of partnerships you are looking at here in Dubai as you expand to the city?
We have two kinds of partnerships. One is with existing businesses, such as Fakeeh University Hospital or Americana. They have either restaurants or prescription drugs that we can deliver. The other partnership might be with those helping us maintain the drones. But right now, we are focusing on the first kind.
How are you ensuring that your drones are safe?
Our drone is actually equipped with a lot of safety features, including redundant batteries, including motors. If you hit one motor and then disable it, the propulsion will be instantaneously transferred to the rest five. It will still be able to control itself. And including an onboard parachute that it will deploy in case of emergency. If it sees an obstacle in midair, it has something called send, detect and avoid capabilities to avoid obstacles… to avoid collision in midair. We have, I think, one of the best track records in terms of operational safety for drone delivery.
How long have you invested in terms of time to actually get the license in Dubai?
We’ve spent close to two years. So we have been planning since the beginning of 2023. There are some investigating phases, and then we did a flight demo here during the GITEX last year. Then, we went through a lot of validations and documentation reviews with DCAA and other regulatory bodies. I think it’s all worth it because, as you understand, we already got our operational license inside China. That was from 2021 to 2023. It took us two years here. Actually, it took us a little bit less time than the first time around because we have all this documentation and validation process with CAC, China’s Regulatory body for the Civil Aviation Authority of China.
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