VIDEO: Winair begins offering pizza delivery to neighbor islands

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As regulators around the world struggle with the challenges associated with proposed drone-based delivery services, one small airline is rising to the challenge of just-in-time delivery. Winair, based in St. Maarten and serving the surrounding islands, has partnered with the local Domino’s Pizza franchise and is now offering pizza delivery as part of its scheduled flight service.

The idea for the service came about as a prank a couple of years ago when the pizza chain advertised in the local paper that deliveries were available via helicopter. It was April 1 and the advert was a joke but residents of the smaller islands surrounding St. Maartin took it seriously and called in orders.

It took a bit of time to work out the logistics with Twin Otter and ATR 42 operator Winair but delivery service is now available for real; the tiny neighbor island of Saba received the first deliveries in the program earlier this month.

This is not the only airborne food delivery program running. Residents in Nantucket, Massachusetts can receive Chinese food via a similar service with Cape Air. But this may well be the first international version of such.

There is definitely no 30-minute delivery guarantee from Domino’s in this case.

See a video of Winair’s pizza delivery service in action below.