Grab PH Takes to the Skies: Drone-Powered Deliveries Begin Testing in Metro Manila

Grab Philippines has begun a small-scale drone-delivery pilot that ferries parcels between two Megaworld townships in Metro Manila. Conducted in partnership with the Department of Transportation (DOTr), the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), and property developer Megaworld, the test is designed to slash transit times, gather operational data, and provide regulators with real-world insights before any large-scale rollout. The initial flights, confined to a tightly controlled aerial corridor, start this week and focus on lightweight items—food, documents, and small electronics—capped at two kilograms. Riders still handle door-to-door pick-ups and drop-offs; drones take over only for the “middle-mile” hop between dedicated landing pads.

Metro Manila’s notorious traffic can drag average road speeds below fifteen kilometres per hour at rush hour, turning routine deliveries into half-hour ordeals. By diverting that mid-section to the air, Grab estimates the same trip can be completed in mere minutes, saving fuel and cutting carbon emissions. Because the Philippines is an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands, the company also sees drones as a future bridge between urban centres and remote barangays, promising faster fulfilment for e-commerce merchants and wider reach for essential goods such as medicines.

Each parcel begins and ends its journey with a Grab rider, who collects the package from a merchant, hands it to ground staff at a Megaworld “drone relay” station, then retrieves it from the drone’s twin station on the other end and completes the final leg to the customer’s doorstep. The autonomous multi-copter, pre-programmed with its flight path and monitored in real time, handles only the roughly three-kilometre aerial leg. Every flight’s telemetry, battery performance, noise footprint, and safety record will be logged for later analysis.

At the launch event, Grab Philippines managing director Ronald Roda framed the exercise as “a learning lab for unmanned logistics that could one day serve everything from dense city blocks to far-flung islands.” DOTr Secretary Vince Dizon argued that overcoming gridlock “means looking beyond roads altogether,” while DICT Undersecretary Christina Faye Condez-de Sagon stressed that her agency’s role is to ensure drone technology speeds, rather than complicates, the nation’s digital transformation.

The pilot runs for sixty days, during which engineers and regulators will review flight data, rider turnaround times, and customer feedback. A white paper detailing best practices—battery endurance, air-traffic de-confliction, and recommended safety protocols—is slated for release in the fourth quarter of 2025 and will guide the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) in drafting rules for wider commercial use. If results are positive, new drone corridors—including urban hops such as Quezon City–Ortigas and inter-island links like Cebu–Mactan—are pencilled in for future phases.

With Amazon Prime Air and Zipline making headlines abroad, the Philippine initiative stands out for its public-private mix and its hybrid “rider + drone” model rather than full autonomy. Successful trials could unlock same-hour fulfilment windows for merchants, create new income streams for riders in roles such as drone marshals, and, ultimately, offer Southeast Asian megacities a scalable blueprint for easing traffic congestion while broadening access to goods and services.

Source: Rappler — “Grab PH, gov’t partners launch drone delivery pilot” (June 2025).