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“Matternet Receives Approval for Operating M2 Drone in Saudi Arabia”

U.S‑based Mat­ter­net, the devel­op­er of a lead­ing urban drone deliv­ery sys­tem, announced this week the com­pa­ny has been approved by The King­dom of Sau­di Ara­bia to oper­ate its M2 drone with­in the region, reports a press release. This is the first oper­a­tor to receive such approval. 

The endorse­ment was grant­ed by Sau­di Arabia’s Gen­er­al Author­i­ty of Civ­il Avi­a­tion (GACA), after the agency deter­mined that the M2’s Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion (FAA) Type Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion issued by the U.S, met GACA air­wor­thi­ness stan­dards. This drone deliv­ery sys­tem was the first to achieve such a dis­tinc­tion in Sep­tem­ber 2022.

Andreas Rap­topou­los, Founder and CEO of Mat­ter­net, remarked, “We are proud to have received this accep­tance from GACA. The Mid­dle East is an excit­ing region for drone deliv­ery and Sau­di Ara­bia rep­re­sents the largest econ­o­my. Riyadh will have autonomous drone deliv­ery as a new lay­er of city infra­struc­ture, enabling ultra-fast, cost-effi­cient, zero-emis­sions deliv­ery for its busi­ness­es and res­i­dents.”

The release explains, “Since 2021, Mat­ter­net has estab­lished key part­ner­ships around the world to expand its foot­print. The com­pa­ny ini­tial­ly entered the Mid­dle East mar­ket through a part­ner­ship with the Abu Dhabi Depart­ment of Health to pro­vide city-wide med­ical deliv­ery. The fol­low­ing year, Mat­ter­net launched the world’s longest urban drone deliv­ery route in Zurich, Switzer­land. In 2024, the com­pa­ny entered the home deliv­ery mar­ket after launch­ing the first-ever drone deliv­ery oper­a­tion in Sil­i­con Val­ley.

Andreas Rap­topou­los

Jason Sec­ore, Matternet’s CFO, point­ed out, “We have seen rapid growth in the devel­op­ment and pop­u­la­tion of cities such as Riyadh. This will cre­ate a greater need for deliv­ery and lead to mount­ing pres­sure on the cur­rent infra­struc­ture to keep up with demand.” Adding, “Drone deliv­ery will play a key role in man­ag­ing these chal­lenges in a time­ly and scal­able man­ner.”

This year, Mat­ter­net plans to con­tin­ue scal­ing oper­a­tions through­out the Unit­ed States, Europe and the Mid­dle East. The com­pa­ny is com­mit­ted to ensur­ing its drone tech­nol­o­gy “exceeds reg­u­la­to­ry stan­dards to take advan­tage of excit­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties that will encour­age mass adop­tion and dri­ve the indus­try for­ward.”

For more infor­ma­tion 

https://www.matternet.com

(Top image: Mat­ter­net M2 Drone — Cred­it: Mat­ter­net)

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