Amazon’s Prime Air service is expanding to reach nearly 500 cities and towns in the U.S. by the end of 2026, increasing its footprint (or should we say “airprint”) sixfold. The drone delivery service currently serves customers in cities across seven states, including Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, and Texas, with plans to launch in Georgia, Ohio, Illinois, Idaho, and New York soon. The company also has the service running in Darlington, England, its first city outside of the U.S.
Just when you thought data centers were your town’s biggest problem, now you can add “drone crashing down from the sky” to your list of concerns. These things are big too! Imagine a floating dishwasher-sized drone, not some handheld DJI Mavic Air.
Amazon says that nearly all items 5 pounds or less that fit into a large shoebox can be delivered by drone, which accounts for more than 60% of the most frequently purchased items on its marketplace. Prime members are eligible for free drone delivery on orders of $50 or more, or pay $2.99 for orders under $50, while non-Prime losers pay a flat $4.99 delivery fee regardless of order size.
Like most people who aren’t accustomed to having robots fly over their heads as they’re walking down the street, I have my reservations about drone delivery, mostly in regard to safety and privacy. It’s going to be real hard to tell the difference between Amazon delivery drones and Flock surveillance drones, that’s for sure. Communities have also been pushing back against drone delivery over the noise it produces in otherwise quiet neighborhoods.
However skepticism aside, it’s insanely impressive that Amazon has developed a drone delivery system that can consistently reach customers in under 60 minutes, while offering the service for either free or at most $4.99. I used to sell paper maps online and it would cost me more than that to deliver a single map through the USPS — for a freaking 6×9″ paper map! Now it’s cheaper to send one via drone in some cities.
Granted, I imagine that Amazon will push prices and free thresholds higher as time goes on, as they have a habit of introducing new logistics services at a loss and then later raising prices or forcing sellers to subsidize the cost. “Optional: Enable drone delivery for just $0.30 per FBA delivery and reach customers who are looking to get their items delivered fast.” — and that’s how some items in the future will have an “Available For Drone Delivery” badge and others won’t. We’ll see. Either way, it sounds like drone delivery is coming to a city near you faster than anticipated.
They couldn’t have picked worse week for this story to go viral though!
