Facts & figures on the commercial drone market

“The EU needs to take a leading role worldwide in developing the right framework for this market to flourish, by unleashing the benefits for key economic sectors,” says Violeta Bulc, EU Commissioner for Transport (source: unmannedcargoaircraftconference.com).

The global market for drone powered business solutions is currently worth 127.3 billion dollars and will grow immensely in the coming few years. One of the reasons being the European drone framework that is predicted to be in place by 2020. Due to this framework, endless of – at the moment – far future technologies and applications will suddenly be within reach.

Top industries using drones
High costs and technical limitations kept the uses of drones relatively limited until recently. However, major technological advancements, combined with the technology becoming cheaper and the legalisation of commercial drone use by the FAA in 2016 have made that UAS applications are now within reach of many businesses and branches.

Examples of current drone applications in commercial use are air photography for journalism and filmmaking, use of thermic sensor drones for search and rescue parties, safety inspections, precision farming, safety and border control, weather forecasting and storm watching, and much more.