Alibaba drones on trial as Amazon faces US test

HONG KONG: Alibaba Group is making its first trial drone deliveries in China, as e-commerce rival Amazon.com struggles to start a similar program in the US. Asia's largest internet company is partnering with Shanghai YTO Express Logistics to deliver ginger tea packets to 450 Chinese customers who volunteered for the one-time drone tests, according to a statement from Alibaba. Remote-controlled helicopters are expected to distribute 50 parcels from Alibaba's Taobabo Marketplace in Beijing on Wednesday, before moving to Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The flights, if successful and uncon tested by authorities, would give the budding commercial drone industry a boost in China, where the military allots only a fifth of the airspace to civilian use. Amazon -the largest internet retailer by sales -has begun testing remote deliveries abroad after asking the US Federal Aviation Administration to speed approvals for drones tests in Washington state.

“China is still in the initial phase of establishing regulations on commercial usage of drones, a lot of areas are still completely blank,“ Zhang Qihuai, an attorney at Lanpeng Law Firm, said. “Key regulations regarding flight altitude, accountability for accidents have not been established yet. There's still a long way to go before drone can really be commercial used in China.“ Alibaba and YTO said they have notified Chinese aviation authorities about the flights as required by regulation and believed that the deliveries complied with all existing rules.

At least one of the drones was expected to fly from YTO's warehouse in the eastern outskirts of Beijing and reach the 1,100 feet China World Trade Center in less than an hour. A deliveryman will await the parcel's arrival on the ground floor and carry it to customer, Jia Yun, a Taobao spokeswoman, said.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China issued regulations to 2009, requiring operators of drones to be identified when applying to use such devices, according to a posting on the agency's website. Chinese regulators are considering license requirements for drone operators, a step the FAA is also discussing for unmanned commercial flights.

Two calls to the Civil Aviation Administration's public affairs office went unanswered. YTO has no specific plans to promote drones on a larger scale and lot of issues must first be addressed, said Ren Xue, the company's Shanghai-based spokesman.

US moves to restrict commercial drones have frustrated Amazon's plans to fly light packages to customers in 30 minutes or less. Drone use in the US was dealt another setback last month after an operator lost control of a SZ DJI Technology-built quadcopter and it crashed on White House grounds, according to the Secret Service.