Russian Post will save money by freezing the unmanned delivery project

The launch of permanent routes for commercial delivery of goods by drones has been postponed by Russian Post for an indefinite period, a source close to Russian Post told Vedomosti, and was confirmed by an interlocutor at the company in the unmanned aerial vehicle market. A representative of Russian Post declined to comment.

By the end of 2024, Pochta, in accordance with the federal project “Unmanned Cargo Delivery,” must build seven unmanned cargo delivery routes in Yamal and 21 routes in Chukotka using helicopter-type drones. Some of them were supposed to be launched before the end of 2023. In June 2022, Deputy General Director of Russian Post Sergei Sergeyev (already left the company) reported that the operator would begin commercial delivery of goods by unmanned drones in the “coming weeks.” Back in 2021, Pochta announced a joint project to operate drones with Aeromax. In mid-March 2023, a test delivery of cargo was carried out using unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) of Russian Helicopters (part of Rostec).