• Wing, the drone delivery division operated by Google, has announced plans to start commercial drone-based delivery operations in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, once it obtains approval from the state and local governments.

• The service will start in partnership with Walgreens, a pharmacy chain. Accordingly, the companies will be delivering items from one Walgreens store to its customers within a 4-mile radius in Frisco and Little Elm.

• Wing also plans to set up a facility at Frisco Station, which will initially act as a center for exploring new user cases, community demonstrations, and public tours.

<ul><li>The company will use its newly introduced business model (of co-locating drone operations at retailers’ premises) to run operations in Texas.</ul> <ul><li> Analyst QuickTake: The expansion marks Wing’s second site of operations in the US following its first in Virginia, established in 2019 through a series of partnerships including Walgreens, and FedEx. The company also has operations in Helsinki, Finland, and Queensland, Australia. It reported completing 100,000 drone-based deliveries in August this year, and the majority of the deliveries were in Australia. However, Wing is not the first to start drone-based deliveries in Texas; the startup DroneUp also announced a drone-based delivery pilot in El Paso, Texas in November last year. </ul>