California-based El Pollo Loco Inc. is testing door-to-backyard drone delivery to improve customer experience, President and CEO Bernard Acoca said in a company press release. During the pilot, which starts June 24, a select number of the chain's rewards members in Southern California will receive one of the first fire-grilled flights delivered by "Air Loco," which will lower orders from the sky to customers' doorsteps.

"We're highly encouraged by the evolution of our digital flywheel and continued enhancement of the strategies we put in place last year," Acoca said. "We look forward to further growth on the heels of our record-breaking 250% increase in delivery performance in 2020."

El Pollo Loco is launching the pilot with Tel Aviv-based drone startup Flytrex, which manufactures and operates automated drones that cruise at 32 mph without traffic or other impediments and use a wire release mechanism to gently lower food orders from 80 feet.

"El Pollo Loco continues to explore new and innovative delivery services that offer our customers added quality and convenience, and the Air Loco drone delivery pilot program is our latest effort to unlock fresh options for getting our fire-grilled chicken to hungry customers everywhere — piping hot and in perfect condition," Andy Rebhun, El Pollo Loco's VP of Digital, said in the release. "We want to offer drone food deliveries that are fast, convenient and safe. The insights gleaned during this test-and-learn pilot will play a crucial role in helping us shape this exciting new service ahead of its rollout."

The Air Loco drone has a fastened delivery box to keep orders intact and at the correct temperature, which means customers receive their food packed in Pollo's Thermo-to-Go packaging in a fraction of the time it would take for a conventional delivery to arrive, Rebhun said.

El Pollo Loco has more than 480 company-owned and franchised restaurants in Arizona, California, Nevada, Texas, Utah and Louisiana.

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