Federal Aviation Administration Anticipates Commercial Drone Market to Triple by 2023
Recently, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released its 20-year forecast of what’s to come for aviation between 2019 and 2039.
One of the main takeaways was that the commercial drone market is proceeding faster than anticipated.
So much so, that the FAA report notes that the commercial drone market may triple between now and 2023, in just four years.
On the other hand, the market for non-commercial drones — known as “hobby drones” — appears to be slowing.
Yet, since the FAA mandated online registration for drones in 2015, “more than 900,000 owners have registered” their non-commercial model drones.
The FAA also tracks non-model drones, which are essentially drones with a commercial focus. As of the end of 2018, more than 27,000 non-model drones have been registered with the FAA.
For the commercial category, “the pace of monthly registration, almost 15,000, is nearly three times higher than the pace at which non-model aircraft owners registered their craft during the same time last year.”
The report covers more than just drone use, also mentioning domestic and international airline markets, space traffic and cargo air traffic.
The FAA notes that unmanned aircraft systems of all kinds “have been experiencing healthy growth in the United States and around the world” in the last five year.
The FAA notes that registration rate will top 44 percent over last year’s figures and by 2023, the market will have tripled in size, with an estimated 823,000 drones.
Commercial drones are of significant interest to many companies.
Amazon, Walmart, Google and 7-Eleven have all thought about or experimented with drone deliveries to cut down on delivery time.
The report notes that as drones “become operationally more efficient and safe, battery life expands, and integration continues, new business models will begin to develop.”
