CANBERRANS will now be able to have groceries delivered right to their doors via drones in a new program starting this week (March 2).

Drone delivery service Wing has partnered with Coles to offer more than 250 grocery items for home delivery, including bread, fresh produce, snacks, convenience meals, health care items and kitchen essentials.

The service, which doesn’t include delivery fees, will allow Canberrans to order groceries through the Wing mobile app and have them delivered “within minutes” via the small flying craft.

Simon Rossi, General Manager of Wing Australia said they’re excited to expand their delivery options for customers by taking to the skies of Canberra.

​​“Whether you’ve run out of milk and eggs for breakfast, forgotten to pick up a loaf of bread for school lunches, or are just after a fresh ‘grab and go’ snack, customers in our delivery service area in Canberra can now get those urgent items they need in a hurry, delivered by drone,” said Mr Rossi.

Drone delivery in Canberra experienced an awkward take-off when some residents voiced concerns over the noise generated by the craft following a trial program in 2019, sparking a Legislative Assembly inquiry.

According to the inquiry report, some accounts likened the noise of a drone passing overhead to that of a “Formula One racing car”.

Wing told an Assembly committee they had taken “that feedback to heart”, and used it to inform their choice of the Mitchell industrial area to base their operations. Coles items will be stored at and delivered from their Mitchell warehouse.

“In the last year we’ve seen a significant increase in use of our on-demand drone delivery service, with many customers finding the service especially useful as they stayed home, and relied on our contactless delivery service to deliver the items they needed,” said Mr Rossi.

“Wing made more than 100,000 deliveries in Australia in 2021, and strong demand for drone delivery has continued in 2022. Wing has already made more than 30,000 deliveries in Australia this year.”

Wing, a subsidiary of Alphabet, the company which owns Google, will also expand its services to two new suburbs – Kaleen and Giralang. This is in addition to the service they already offer in Crace, Franklin, Harrison, Mitchell, and Palmerston.