Alphabet Inc.- owned drone company Wing is setting its sites on Europe with the announcement that it will start a drone delivery service in Finland next spring.

The service, to be based out of the country’s capital Helsinki, will see Wing match suppliers with customers of various items, although the list of what will be available is not yet finalized. Among the products being considered for the service are food, medicine and “emergency” items. The drones will be able to carry up to 1.5 kilograms in a 20-kilometer radius.

“Finns are internationally renowned for being early-adopters of new technologies and we’re looking forward to working with the community and local businesses to find the best way to implement our services,” Wing said on its newly launched Finland website. “Based on what we know about the winter weather in Finland, we’re pretty confident that if our drones can deliver here, they can deliver anywhere!”

Wing was last in the news with its drones back in October 2017 when it launched a pilot program to deliver medicine and Mexican food in parts of Southeast Australia. According to Wing, that program is still in testing. The company itself “graduated” from Alphabet’s X Lab in July, a sign that Alphabet was getting serious in pushing Wing forward as a standalone business.

The biggest difference between previous trials and the launch in Finland is that Wing is not pitching this as a pilot program but a full service from day one.

Drone delivery has been talked about for years now, but despite high profile demonstrations, particularly by Amazon.com Inc., the concept has struggled to take off.

In the U.S., drone deliveries have been stifled by a number of regulatory hurdles primarily because of the way the Federal Aviation Administration restricts the use of airspace and the way drones are operated. Other countries have similar issues, though some are easier to deal with than others — Finland a prime example.

Wing may be hoping that a successful service in Finland, not exactly a large market, will demonstrate to other countries that a drone delivery service is both safe and desirable.

Photo: Wing