Papa John's Tests Drone Delivery in North Carolina

Papa John's is testing drone delivery with Wing, the drone company owned by Alphabet, in Indian Trail, North Carolina, just outside Charlotte. Customers near Sun Valley Commons can now order sandwiches through the Wing app and watch their lunch arrive from above.

The menu stays simple for now. Customers can choose from Oven Toasted Sandwiches including Philly Cheesesteak, Chicken Bacon Ranch, and Steak & Mushroom.

You might wonder why sandwiches and not pizza. The answer comes down to physics and packaging. A sandwich box is compact and stable, while a pizza box is wide, flat, and needs to stay perfectly level to avoid a cheese disaster.

Wing and Papa John's are working together on custom aerodynamic packaging that could eventually handle full pizzas. For now, sandwiches serve as the testing ground while engineers solve the pizza puzzle.

The ordering process works through Wing's app today, but the long-term vision looks different. Papa John's plans to integrate Wing's drone network directly into its own app, powered by Google Cloud's AI technology. That would make drone delivery feel like just another option at checkout, not a separate service.

Charlotte area residents can check if they qualify for deliveries and sign up for updates at wing.com/get-delivery. The system will eventually need to work smoothly during busy lunch and dinner rushes, which may be the real test.

The Ripple Effect

This partnership marks Wing's first collaboration with a national restaurant brand. The companies see it as a blueprint for combining AI-powered ordering with drone delivery across the industry.

The technology could transform how hot food reaches customers. Drones could cut delivery times, reduce traffic, and help restaurants serve people faster during peak hours.

Other companies are already testing similar services. Flytrex recently partnered with Little Caesars in Texas, using drones that can carry up to two large pizzas and drinks. That proves pizza delivery by drone can happen, even if Papa John's is taking a more measured approach.

The path forward still has hurdles. Weather affects flights, regulations limit where drones can operate, and the economics need to make sense for daily operations. But each test flight brings the technology closer to becoming ordinary.

For now, the skies over Indian Trail belong to toasted sandwiches, and that's just fine.