McDonald's and Chinese food-delivery giant Meituan have launched China's first drone-delivery route dedicated to a single catering brand, bringing the technology to Shanghai's popular West Bund riverfront.
The service allows visitors walking, exercising or spending time along the West Bund in Shanghai's Xuhui district to have McDonald's orders delivered directly to designated collection kiosks.
The 3.1-kilometre flight path starts at a McDonald's restaurant in Xuhui and is designed to serve thousands of local office workers as well as tourists visiting the riverside area.
The route officially opened on 10 September, with the first flight carrying a Big Mac meal from the McDonald's restaurant on Longteng Avenue to a nearby collection point.
Much of the delivery process is automated. A robotic arm loads the food onto the drone before it follows a predetermined route to the collection point. Each aircraft can carry about 2.4 kilograms, enough for most combinations of burgers, sides and drinks.
Under favourable flying conditions, deliveries can arrive in about 10 minutes.
Meituan is using its fourth-generation M-Drone 4L Winch, together with its M-Port 3 drone ports and M-DaaS 3 scheduling system, to operate the network.
The West Bund operation extends beyond McDonald's. Meituan's wider network in the area already supports nearly 20 restaurant chains and hundreds of products, with the number of participating brands expected to exceed 40 by the end of 2026.
The drones are equipped with nighttime visual positioning, obstacle avoidance and emergency landing systems.
The launch is the latest milestone in Meituan's rapid expansion of its drone-delivery business. The company has now completed more than one million commercial drone orders across cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Dubai.
Meituan has reached that milestone by steadily expanding its network, including launching operations in Hong Kong last year and adding routes across mainland Chinese cities as regulators have opened more low-altitude airspace to commercial operations.
What sets the McDonald's partnership apart is that the route is dedicated to a single restaurant chain, rather than being shared by several restaurants, as is typically the case with Meituan's delivery network.
The move suggests individual restaurant brands are beginning to view drone delivery as more than a technology trial, using it instead as a way to differentiate their services and offer customers a faster and more distinctive delivery experience.
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