Papa John’s International has begun a small-scale U.S. test of drone deliveries, the company announced, expanding its technology initiatives with a trial in a North Carolina suburb. The pilot is being run in partnership with Wing, a delivery drone company owned by Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
Deliveries started on Monday for customers living in the vicinity of Sun Valley Commons, a shopping mall located in a suburb close to Charlotte, North Carolina. Participation in the service requires customers to place orders using an application operated by Wing. At launch, the drone delivery option is restricted to only a few selected sandwiches on the menu.
The trial is presented by the chain as part of a broader effort to modernize its technology. Executives said last year that they believed the company had fallen behind some of its peers in certain areas of digital capability. Earlier this year, in April, Papa John’s introduced an AI-powered chatbot within its app that customers can use to place pizza orders.
Although drone delivery of food has become commonplace in many Chinese cities, such services remain largely absent across the United States. Several restaurant chains in recent months have announced small, experimental drone delivery programs similar in scale to this Papa John’s pilot. Names that have rolled out comparable limited tests include Chipotle and Dave’s Hot Chicken.
Industry observers note that while the core technology is available in the U.S., regulatory limits constrain broader deployment. One such regulatory constraint cited is rules that require drone pilots to keep a visual line of sight with their aircraft, which restricts scalable, long-distance automated delivery operations.
The pilot represents a measured step for the company as it tests operational, technological and regulatory interfaces associated with drone-based last-mile delivery. For now, the service is geographically limited, app-dependent, and confined to a very small subset of menu offerings while Papa John’s and its partner evaluate the program’s viability.
Summary
Papa John’s has started a drone delivery pilot with Wing in a Charlotte, North Carolina suburb. Orders must be placed through Wing’s app and the service initially covers a few sandwiches. The initiative is part of the chain’s wider technology modernization efforts, following earlier moves such as an AI chatbot introduced in April. Regulatory limits, including line-of-sight rules, remain a barrier to wider U.S. adoption.