Hong Kong is already a highly tech-driven city – just look at how we fared on the UN-backed Innovation Cluster Ranking 2025 report, and the fact that we’re using AI-powered anti-rodent solutions! Soon, Hongkongers may even receive their medical supplies in the most tech-y way imaginable – through direct drone deliveries.
Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority, the statutory body that manages the city’s government hospitals and healthcare institutes, is reportedly trialling the delivery of urgent-care medicine through drones. Collaborating with logistics provider SF Express, the test consisted of piloting a medicine-bearing drone from Cyberport to St John Hospital in Cheung Chau. A trip that would normally take up to 65 minutes by ferry was successfully reduced to just 20 minutes as the drone took a 12-km flight path to its destination, and the performance of the operation was “very stable” according to SF Express.
Using piloted drones to complete medical deliveries drastically cuts down the time required to deliver urgent supplies, especially when it comes to remote districts and outlying islands in Hong Kong that are harder and more time-consuming to reach.
SF Express and the Hospital Authority’s drone delivery trial is just one example of the city’s growing number of pilot projects under the Low-Altitude Economy Regulatory Sandbox programme. It’s still early days, and further tests are on the horizon to really put the medical drone delivery system through its paces, but we hope widespread service will be introduced to the city once all necessary operational tests are concluded.
Drone deliveries are already a common sight in mainland China, where the aerial devices are used to fulfil food and shopping orders. Chinese e-commerce platform Meituan’s subsidiary company, Keeta – which entered the Hong Kong market as a food delivery provider in 2023 – even launched a drone delivery service in June, covering a route between Hong Kong Science Park and Ma On Shan in the New Territories. Keeta has goals to expand its drone deliveries to other neighbourhoods in the city too.
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