Skyports harnesses the power of BVLOS drone operations

• Drone services provider Skyports is harnessing the power of BVLOS drone operations for missions around the world;

• The company is looking for industry professionals to join its team, as it embarks on its next phase of groundbreaking deployments;

• heliguy™ is Skyports' leading training provider - helping to prepare staff for complex deployments - and supplies the company with DJI Docks to support its drone-in-a-box expansion, including inspection operations;

• "We connect the best drone technology with the toughest, most important jobs out there, and we chose heliguy™ because their standards match ours: Focused, rigorous, and grounded in real operational needs" - Lewis Dickinson, Skyports' Head of Flight Operations.

From delivering life-saving vaccines in the Congo to conducting offshore flights to Norwegian oil rigs for reduced asset downtime - a pioneering drone services provider is demonstrating the transformative impact of BVLOS UAS operations.

With more than 25,000 beyond visual line of sight missions to its name, Skyports Drone Services is helping businesses across the globe revolutionise their logistics, capture crucial data, and improve efficiency.

heliguy™ is Skyports’ leading drone training provider - upskilling its staff to ready them for complex deployments - and supplies DJI Docks to support the company’s worldwide drone-in-a-box expansion.

And as Skyports embarks on the latest phase of its UAS programme, the firm is launching a recruitment drive to bolster its ranks with additional skilled industry professionals - from remote pilots through to drone hub operators and operations managers.

It is a clear indication of how Skyports - which runs its remote command and control centre from its UK operations base in Buckinghamshire - is leveraging BVLOS and advanced operations to scale.

The company’s growing portfolio includes two recently-announced, ground-breaking projects: A world-first automated water quality monitoring project in the UK and a proof-of-concept to showcase the potential for drone deliveries across Michigan’s Great Lakes region.

“It is an exciting time at Skyports, and we’re looking to build the team we need behind some of the most complex drone operations out there,” said Lewis Dickinson, Head of Flight Operations.

He added: “At Skyports, it’s not just about flying the drones, it’s about owning the mission from start to finish, and being part of a team making a real-world impact and helping to shape how drones are used in some of the world’s most critical sectors.

“We connect the best drone technology with the toughest, most important jobs out there: whether that’s flying medical supplies for the NHS, undertaking deliveries to oil rigs in the North Sea, or conducting ship-to-shore resupply off the coast of Michigan - and we’re looking for more people to become part of the team and join us on this exciting journey.”

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Pioneering drone firm at the forefront of the industry

Skyports Drone Services has offices around the world and conducts remote drone operations across the globe from its UK HQ.

With permission to conduct BVLOS missions in more than 16 countries, the company operates in locations such as North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australasia.

It utilises a wide-ranging drone ecosystem for versatility, with operations across core verticals such as maritime, remote delivery, security, and surveillance.

“No two weeks are the same and our pilots aren’t flying the same grid day after day,” said Lewis.

“One day you’re running final checks on a drone delivery flight to an oil rig in the North Sea. Then the next, you’re in a pre-deployment briefing preparing to support a turbine inspection mission in the Baltic, and then you could be operating in the Remote Operations Centre in the UK coordinating BVLOS flights.”

Skyports: Case studies

Significant projects include operating the world’s largest bi-directional medical drone delivery network in the Democratic Republic of Congo, transporting 25,000 vaccine doses weekly to 60 hospitals.

The network offers life-saving aid and skilled labour, and reduced travel time from an average of 2 days to less than 1 hour.

Meanwhile, Skyports has conducted offshore operations for global energy leader Equinor, which operates 70+ oil rigs up to 400km off the Norwegian coastline.

Supplying offshore platforms is typically a complex, costly, and labour-intensive operation, but drones enable rapid delivery of critical supplies and infrastructure, helping to reduce asset downtime.

“We flew parts on-demand to multiple oil rigs, and where it might take two days to arrange a helicopter to fly the part out, our drones were ready to fly in 30 minutes, “ said Josh Smithurst, Team Lead and Drone Pilot.

“We were also covering some pretty major distances with the drones, flying up to 100km in a single flight, which was Skyport’s longest single flight at the time.”

“It was also the first time that a drone delivery had been made from one oil rig to another!”

Closer to home, Skyports works with Royal Mail in the Orkney Islands to run a daily inter-island mail distribution service between Stromness on Orkney’s Mainland and the islands of Graemsay and Hoy.

“This is the UK’s first UK commercial drone delivery service,” said drone pilot Tom Brough.

“It’s quite a complex project with a lot of different parties involved, but it has been great to work on a project that is making a real difference to people’s lives, and demonstrate more widely how drones can support critical public services.”

Working with heliguy™

Such complex operations require a stringent level of competency and compliance.

As Skyports’ drone partner, the heliguy™ in-house training team delivers a range of tuition to the company’s pilots, setting the foundation for conducting advanced drone missions, BVLOS operations, and hybrid flying.

This provision includes the GVC, as well as dedicated fixed-wing training to help the team operate its more complex aircraft. heliguy™’s in-house regulatory specialists are also on hand to provide support for complex operations.

heliguy™ also supplies Skyports with DJI Docks, primarily for inspection deployments.

To complement the supply, Skyports can leverage heliguy™’s in-house accredited Dock technicians, solutions engineers, account managers, geospatial department, and training instructors to bolster drone-in-a-box operations.

Lewis said: "heliguy™ is more than just a training provider—they’re a trusted partner. We chose them because their standards match ours: focused, rigorous, and grounded in real operational needs.

"Their facilities are excellent, their team has deep expertise, and the training they deliver lays the foundation our pilots need before moving into the more complex, mission-specific training they’ll do with us at Skyports."

To find out how heliguy™ can start and scale your operations with hardware and training, including BVLOS support, contact us.