What operational aspects of Alphabet's Wing drone delivery service will be the same as that of an airline?
Under FAR Part 117, only certified "air carriers" are allowed to sell "aviation services" to the general public. Certification means that the FAA has determined the proposed operations, whatever they may be, will be reasonably safe.

FAR Part 121 covers most scheduled air carriers, which are commonly called "airlines". These are the only air carriers that the media knows about, so it's understandable that they'd conflate the two.

FAR Part 135 covers unscheduled and very small scheduled air carriers. I suspect this is where Google Wing would fall, but I haven't seen anything definitive so far.