Drones share the sky with planes in new phase of development that holds promise for future

A first-of-its-kind drone delivery system at the Edmonton International Airport is expanding.

Large drones can now safely share airspace with planes, co-ordinating with flights landing and taking off -- and the Montana First Nation, south of Edmonton, will be one of the first to feel the benefits.

Friday morning, after a brief delay for a passing plane, a large drone took to the sky by itself, monitored by a control centre in Toronto -- and Chris Quesnel on the ground.

“I do have the controller, and I can take control if need be, but realistically, I don’t,” Quesnel said. “And it flies really autonomously.

“We push takeoff and it runs the route and lands where it should.”

About three years ago, the Edmonton International Airport was the first in North America to test out drones for delivering small packages, from its warehouse to a designated landing pad in Leduc County.

More than 3,000 successful flights later, the next phase of drone deliveries is now possible.

“The interesting part is the integration of the drone delivery in with conventional commercial aircraft that we see today,” said Trevor Caswell of the Edmonton International Airport.

Untold amounts of paperwork between the airport, NAV Canada and the drone company have checked all the safety boxes to allow drones to share the air with planes.

Now, they’re flying 10 kilometres to a new pad outside of controlled airspace.

“There are many eyes in the world looking at what we’re doing in Canada because this type of drone delivery is very fit for urban and rural delivery,” Caswell said.

"This part of the Phase 2 program is to revolutionize the way drones will integrate to first-and final-mile location in controlled airspace safely," he added. "So we’re really helping transform this sector – there’s no business model that exists today for these flights, what it costs to ship per package or a kilo rate.

"So our partners in this program are working together to bring that framework together."

Montana First Nation

Ralph Cattleman is the Chief of the Montana First Nation south of Edmonton.

The landing pad is next to a medical clinic in Leduc owned by the Montana First Nation. Time-sensitive medications will soon be picked up there instead of at the airport.

Eventually, drones will fly directly to the First Nation, dramatically improving the community’s access to services most Canadians take for granted.

“The opportunities that this brings to us is – it’s huge,” said Montana First Nations Chief Ralph Cattleman. "In my community, a lot of our people don’t have the access to get to town or a store and it would really bring a lot of opportunity where people don’t have to drive and deliver – it would be more environmentally friendly if we used a drone.

"I can’t predict the future," Cattleman added, "but this is where we’re going and it’s massive and it’s so overwhelming. We’re so thankful with the (Edmonton) International Airport, getting us involved with this project,.We’re partners with them, and the opportunities it brings – it’s huge."

The first drone deliveries to the clinic are just weeks away.

WIth files from CTV's Jeremy Thompson