A handful of companies have moved from trial to genuine commercial operation. They are spread across three continents, serve very different use cases, and represent meaningfully different approaches to the same fundamental problem. This is the beginner's guide to the operator landscape.

AirMap was founded in 2014 and has been involved in UTM development since before the term was widely used. As one of the original LAANC-approved service suppliers in the United States, the company has been central to the development of the airspace management infrastructure that commercial drone delivery depends on.

The decision about where to place a drone delivery hub determines everything else about the operation: which addresses it can serve, what the regulatory engagement process looks like, how the logistics of restocking and maintenance work. Here is how operators think about site selection.