Amazon Delivery Drones Take Flight in Arizona With FAA Approval

Prime Air, Amazon’s beleaguered drone business, on Tuesday said it launched delivery of more than 50,000 items—from household essentials like toothpaste to last-minute office supplies—in the West Valley region of the Phoenix metro area. Deliveries will be made using the company’s new MK-30 drone, which it says is smaller, lighter, and more durable than the model it flies in its other U.S. market, College Station, Texas.

The FAA approved the MK-30, unveiled in 2022, to fly beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of Prime Air pilots in Arizona using detect and avoid technology. The agency previously granted BVLOS approval for Prime Air’s MK27-2 drone in College Station, which allowed the aircraft to cover more ground, and opened the service to more potential customers. Because the regulator has not yet finalized a rule for BVLOS drone operations, only a select few firms have obtained those permissions via waiver.

Prime Air launched drone delivery in 2022, nearly a decade after then-CEO Jeff Bezos first announced the service, in College Station and Lockeford, California. The Lockeford site was shuttered earlier this year as the company bolstered its Texas operations by adding prescription delivery. But it has also faced pushback from College Station locals, who complain the drones are too loud.

The firm says the MK-30 produces about half the noise of its predecessor while doubling its range to about 7 sm (6 nm). Customers living within that distance of Amazon’s same-day delivery hub in Tolleson, Arizona— where the e-commerce giant sorts and delivers products—can now order items weighing five pounds or less for drone delivery within an hour.

The Tolleson service marks the first time Prime Air drones are deploying from facilities located next to these sites, which are strategically stationed to serve as many customers as possible. They are also linked to Amazon’s nearby fulfillment centers, which process thousands of items every day that may now be available for drone delivery.

In College Station, and in Lockeford before that service was shuttered, the drones fly out of stand-alone Prime Air delivery centers.

Prime Air said it has delivered “thousands” of items since launching in 2022, compared to more than 30,000 for retail giant Walmart and its drone delivery partners. Walmart collaborators Zipline and Wing, the drone delivery arm of Google parent Alphabet, have each completed several hundred thousand deliveries worldwide.

The Amazon unit is also looking to expand internationally to the U.K. and Italy, it announced last year. In August, the company was one of six participants chosen by the U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to partake in a series of drone delivery trials intended to study how the technology can be integrated into the airspace.

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