Feasibility Study & Financial Model for Drone-Based Cargo Logistics

Year: 2024  |  Client: AERPACE  |  Country: India

Cities Forum delivered a comprehensive feasibility study and detailed financial model for drone-based cargo logistics in India, for the technology company AERPACE. Unmanned aerial logistics promises to leapfrog the constraints of congested roads and difficult terrain, but its commercial viability depends on rigorous analysis of demand, operations, regulation and finance; the study was designed to establish, with hard evidence, whether and how a drone-cargo network could work as a business in the Indian context.

Our approach

The assignment brought together a full spectrum of feasibility work. Cities Forum conducted a demand assessment supported by primary and secondary research and structured stakeholder consultations, identified candidate routes and modelled a hub-and-spoke network to serve them, and carried out a regulatory and policy assessment of the fast-evolving Indian drone framework. This was complemented by economic and financial analysis, benchmarking and comparative analysis against relevant precedents, and a structured risk assessment covering technological, regulatory, operational and market uncertainties, so that decision-makers could see not only the opportunity but the conditions and risks attached to it.

What we delivered

At the core of the work sat a detailed financial model translating the operational concept into numbers: capital and operating costs, revenue assumptions grounded in the demand analysis, unit economics across the hub-and-spoke network, and sensitivity testing against the principal risk drivers. The model was built to be transparent and adjustable, allowing AERPACE to explore scenarios, understand the levers of profitability, and present a credible business case to partners, investors and regulators.

Impact

The study gave AERPACE a robust, evidence-based foundation for its drone-cargo ambitions, clarifying where demand is real, how a network should be configured, what the regulatory path requires, and under which conditions the venture becomes financially viable. For Cities Forum, the project extended its advisory portfolio into the frontier of aerial logistics and demonstrated its ability to combine market research, network modelling, regulatory insight and financial rigour into a single, decision-ready feasibility assessment for an emerging mobility technology.