Last-mile food delivery service provider DoorDash has obtained federal authorization to operate as an air carrier and offer flying drone delivery service, the company said Wednesday.
San Francisco-based DoorDash said it had secured Part 135 air carrier certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a license which attests to an operator’s aircraft airworthiness, maintenance programs, and safety procedures.
With that approval in hand, the company said it would launch an in-house drone program called DoorDash Air. According to the company, those drones will not replace its human delivery workers—called “Dashers”—but rather will allow them to earn more money by focusing on shorter deliveries that can be done quickly, staying near a high concentration of merchants for optimal routing.
Meanwhile, DoorDash will route mid-range deliveries to drones. According to company statistics, more than 20% of orders on the DoorDash platform in 2025 traveled three to five miles, but those orders took on average nearly 25% longer than shorter deliveries, largely because finding the right Dasher takes longer for mid-range trips.
To support that program, the company said it is building out an infrastructure and integration network on the ground, including real-time inventory reconciliation, and universal handoff systems for drive-throughs, rooftops, or merchant back doors.
The company did not disclose what those drones will look like, but said it is currently developing them through its own research and development arm, called DoorDash Labs. “We want drone delivery to work for any merchant, anywhere. We’re building the full stack to make that possible from the ground infrastructure to the drone itself, and the handoff systems that make it work together seamlessly,” said Harrison Shih, Head of DoorDash Air. “Advances in hardware, compute, and AI are creating extraordinary new capabilities for local commerce, and becoming a certified air carrier accelerates everything we’re building.”
