UPS says it has won government approval to run a drone airline, a first for a U.S. company, and it plans to expand deliveries on hospital campuses and eventually other industries.

United Parcel Service Inc. said Tuesday that its drone subsidiary was awarded an airline certificate last week by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Even before getting the airline designation, UPS Flight Forward, as the subsidiary is called, has operated more than 1,000 flights at WakeMed’s hospital campus in Raleigh. UPS worked with the North Carolina Department of Transportation and WakeMed for the trial project.

James Pearce, Communications Officer for the NC Division of Aviation and the NC Global TransPark, said the department was gratified by the news,

“We’re very excited about what we’ve seen so far out of this program,” he told WRAL TechWire. “The FAA’s UAS Integration Pilot Program has helped us explore the possible benefits of drones in a way we couldn’t otherwise.”

But he also said the DOT is being cautious.

“So far, all of our partners have maintained a perfect safety record during their operations in NC,” he said. “We’re taking things slowly with programs like this, to make sure everyone involved is going above and beyond in ensuring the safety of their operators and the public.”

‘A big step forward’

“This is a big step forward in safely integrating unmanned aircraft systems into our airspace, expanding access to healthcare in North Carolina and building on the success of the national UAS [unmanned aerial system] Integration Pilot Program to maintain American leadership in unmanned aviation,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao in a statement.

The FAA noted that the WakeMedflights had focused on the delivery of blood for potentially life-saving transfusions, as well as other medical samples for lab work.

“The company demonstrated that its operations met the FAA’s rigorous safety requirements to qualify for an air carrier certificate. This is based on extensive data and documentation, as well as test flights,” the FAA added.

The designation removes limits on the size of the company’s potential drone operation. Flight Forward can fly an unlimited number of drones, a key step toward expanding the operation. It can also fly drones at night — the company plans to do that after installing the necessary colored warning lights on each drone.

However, UPS still faces severe restrictions before it can run a large commercial operation with drones.

For example, drones won’t be allowed to fly beyond the sight of the operator without an FAA exemption for each route. Also, each flight will need a separate operator. Scott Price, the company’s chief strategy officer, said UPS will eventually apply for FAA permission to have a single operator fly multiple drones at the same time.

The airline certificate lets UPS fly drones carrying more than 55 pounds, “but we’re not comfortable we have the hardware for that yet,” Price said in an interview.

Operations will be limited to campus-like settings because FAA has not yet written regulations to allow commercial drone flights over populated areas. Price said UPS is eyeing “hundreds” of such sites in the U.S., including hospitals, colleges and office buildings.

Price said the Wake Forest experiment has been successful, with only “a few” drone flights canceled for mechanical problems or because of bad weather. He said none have crashed. With a special FAA exemption, the company operated a drone flight there on Friday beyond the sight of the operator, which Price said was a first for a revenue-generating delivery.

UPS believes the earliest commercially viable uses of drones will be for same-day deliveries, for augmenting truck-borne deliveries in rural areas, and for larger drones that could carry cargo of up to a ton from one rural area to another. Price said the latter idea is still years away.