After much testing, in 2023, Amazon announced its plans to launch drone deliveries in the UK through Prime Air. They have now revealed that Prime Air is taking steps to start planning for initial flights from Amazon’s fulfilment centre in Darlington.
Amazon will be lodging a planning application with the local authority to seek permission to build our flight operations facilities at the site, as well as applying for authorisation from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to fly drones in the airspace. Once those agreements are in place, they will begin hiring team members to launch drone delivery.
Since launching in the US in 2022, Prime Air has already safely delivered thousands of packages to customers in 60 minutes or less using a fleet of electric drones designed, built, and operated by Amazon.
We’ll continue to work closely with the CAA as they develop the regulatory framework to make commercial drone delivery a reality in the UK. In the meantime, we will also engage with the Darlington community to answer questions and collect feedback as we seek to offer this new delivery option.
Once the service is live, customers within the service area will be able to order items directly from the Amazon app or website.
– Amazon Prime Aid
