Amazon Wins FAA Clearance to Expand Prime Air Delivery Drone Operations, Cover Longer-Distance Shipments

By Trisha Andrada

May 31 2024, 02:45 AM EDT

Amazon announced on Thursday, May 30, that it had been granted permission by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to use its Prime Air delivery drones for greater distances without ground spotters.

In the past, pilots had to keep an eye on Amazon's drones as they flew. Thanks to the FAA clearance, drones may now fly above and beyond what pilots can see.

amazon prime — Amazon Delivery signage is displayed outside an Amazon.com Inc. delivery hub during Amazon Prime Day on July 12, 2022 in Torrance, California. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

FAA Approval Opens Door for Amazon to Expand Drone Services

This federal approval is a win for Amazon as it allows the e-commerce giant to expand its service to additional areas of the United States.

College Station, Texas, is one of the locations where the firm has been conducting flight tests. Now, Amazon has announced that it will extend its delivery area there.

In the press statement, it states that drone deliveries will be integrated into Amazon's delivery network later this year. This means that drones will be launched from nearby facilities to their Same-Day Delivery sites, giving more consumers quicker delivery service.

By 2025, it hopes to have expanded to even more US communities. The corporation has stated its intention to achieve annual drone package deliveries of 500 million by the end of the decade.

The expansion of drone services was approved after Amazon installed collision-avoidance technology that allowed them to identify and avoid obstructions while flying.

Challenges Plagued Prime Air for Years

More than ten years after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos outlined his plans for the program, the e-commerce behemoth's Prime Air drone delivery service is still struggling, according to CNBC.

Amazon removed workers from Prime Air last year as part of a larger round of layoffs. Executive departures and regulatory setbacks were other problems the firm encountered.

The business said in 2022 that it will start testing delivery in two locations: College Station in Texas and Lockeford in California. However, earlier this month, it announced that it would be shifting its drone operations out of California and into the area of Phoenix, Arizona, later this year.