The Royal Mail and Orkney Islands Council Harbour Authority as well as airline Loganair are collaborating to organise delivery drones for cargo in a project called I-Port.

Skyports, the drone logistics firm running the operation is calling this the UK’s first drone delivery initiative, which it says can continue permanently under established regulations. 

Currently, the state of mail delivery to the islands is often interrupted by poor weather conditions.

The islands receive their mail from a Loganair flight from mainland Scotland which lands in Kirkwall. After that, a ferry system departs from the island to 19 other inhabited islands. Frequent weather delays, however, inhibit the ferries from docking safely. 

The project will do inter-port deliveries and shore-to-ship deliveries daily using fully electric drones, allowing for a more uninterrupted stream of mail for the islands going forwards. 

The new service is set to launch before the end of June this year and will initially be operating between three locations with the intention to extend to more. The mail will be delivered via ground transportation to a hub in Stromness where it will then be carried by drone to Royal Mail sites on Graemsay and the North of Hoy.

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The project is funded by the Department for Transport’s Freight Innovation Fund which focuses on accelerating the adoption of commercial solutions to address challenges in the UK’s freight sector. 

David Dawson, Orkney councillor and chair of the council’s development and infrastructure committee, said: “Orkney has a strong tradition of playing a central role in the introduction of new ways of doing things, advanced technologies and innovation. The proposals within this project offer some interesting opportunities for our island communities – and I’m sure they’ll be watching with interest as things develop.”