DronesDrone delivery airline

UPS Flight Forward

Name: UPS Flight Forward
Brand: UPS (with Matternet drones)

UPS Flight Forward is the drone airline set up by parcel company UPS. It flew Matternet M2 drones carrying blood samples, lab specimens and prescriptions between hospital buildings in North Carolina. DroneXL, 6 June 2026

Stage 5 of 5

Regulator-cleared or mass market

Which rule placed it

Evidence: Independently reported
Human help: Not disclosed
Last milestone: 8 Sept 2023

01Can I get it?

Yes, in places

Where it works today: Not stated in our sources.
Published price: No published price in our sources.
Human help: The maker hasn't said whether people help it remotely.

02Track record

What has actually happened

Every milestone is dated and links to the page it comes from. Lines marked company-reported rest on the maker's own word.

8 Sept 2023
Cleared · sets the stage
The FAA gave UPS Flight Forward permission to fly drones beyond the operator's line of sight, so it could deliver small packages with Matternet M2 drones.
DroneXL, 8 Sept 2023
14 Jan 2022
Setback
UPS chief executive Carol Tomé played down drones, saying they cannot fly in wind or rain and have many problems.
DroneXL, 14 Jan 2022Company-reported
14 July 2020
Paying customers
UPS Flight Forward and Matternet started two drone routes at Wake Forest Baptist Health in North Carolina, carrying medicines and protective equipment for COVID-19 staff.
DroneXL, 14 July 2020Company-reported
2020
Pilot
UPS also flew medical supplies by drone to The Villages retirement community in Florida.
DroneDJ, 12 Jan 2022
2019
Cleared · sets the stage
UPS became the first company to get FAA approval to run as a drone delivery airline.
DroneXL, 14 Jan 2022
2019
Paying customers
UPS Flight Forward began a drone network between hospital buildings in North Carolina using Matternet M2 drones, moving blood samples, lab specimens and prescriptions.
DroneXL, 6 June 2026

03Safety and incidents

What has gone wrong

No crashes, recalls or regulator reports in our sources. That is not proof none happened; we add them when a regulator or trusted outlet reports one.

How we placed it

The rule, not an opinion

Stages are worked out by published rules from the dated milestones above. We never rate robots, and no maker can pay to change a stage.

5
Regulator-cleared or mass marketThis robot
A regulator has cleared it where approval applies: FDA clearance or approval for a medical robot, a permit to run with no one aboard for a self-driving vehicle, or an FAA approval for routine drone flights. Or: Widely sold: sales in the hundreds of thousands, or a product category you can buy in ordinary shops.
Placed by: The FAA gave UPS Flight Forward permission to fly drones beyond the operator's line of sight, so it could deliver small packages with Matternet M2 drones (8 Sept 2023); UPS became the first company to get FAA approval to run as a drone delivery airline (2019).
4
Paying customers
Delivered to customers who pay for it, beyond a trial, or a paid service the public can use.
3
Pilot
Working with a named customer in a real setting, as a trial.
2
Pre-orders
Orders, reservations or deposits taken, with nothing delivered yet.
1
Demo only
Shown in videos, staged events or a factory, with no units working for customers.

What we couldn't confirm. We could not confirm the current (2026) status. A June 2026 DroneXL article refers to the UPS hospital network only in the past tense, but we found no source stating that UPS has wound down Flight Forward. No delivery counts were found.

Sources

Cite this page

Robotics Verdict. “UPS Flight Forward (UPS (with Matternet drones)): how far has it got?” roboticsverdict.com/robots/ups-flight-forward. Checked 19 October 2026.