Amazon is hatching plans to bring its drone delivery services to the United Kingdom.
The company announced this week that it will start applying for authorizations from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to fly drones out of a Darlington, England-based fulfillment center. The development has been in the making for several years.
In 2023, Amazon said drones would be in flight in the United Kingdom and Italy by the end of 2024. The company did not, in the end, find itself aligned with that timeline. And the process may yet have a ways to go; an Amazon spokesperson said the company remains “very early in the process,” and that before drones can take flight, the company will need to coordinate further with the CAA and the Darlington-area community.
“We will engage with the community to answer questions and collect feedback as we seek to offer this new option for delivery,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
In the United States, Amazon has delivered thousands of packages to customers in an hour or less, using drones developed and operated by the company itself. It has Prime Air sites in Tolleson, Ariz., and College Station, Tex. At one time, it also had a site in Lockeford, Calif., which it made the decision to shutter last year.
The company announced in 2024 that, in the U.S. it had received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly its MK30 drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS)—meaning that it can fly the devices without a human being able to see them in the sky.
It appears the main difference between the UK drone operations and the U.S. drone operations will be the kind of site the technology operates out of. In the U.S., Amazon has built dedicated Prime Air sites. In Darlington, it plans to, at first, launch drones out of an existing fulfillment center. It plans to secure permits to build flight operations infrastructure at the site, and will hire new employees to handle the drones.
Amazon did not disclose how much it anticipates the project will cost, and the spokesperson noted that the company had “nothing more to share at this time” on how soon drones could begin flying in the United Kingdom. In a blog post, the company stated it plans to file
Consumers interested in receiving their packages via drone can opt in if their delivery address is eligible; those who do not want to engage with the drones will continue to receive Amazon packages as usual, without disruption.
In the blog post, the company said it believes this development shows its prowess in catering to consumers’ desires.
“We are ready and excited to make drone delivery a reality for our UK customers. We have built safe and reliable drone delivery services elsewhere in the world in close partnership with regulators and the communities we serve, and we are working to do the same in the UK,” the company said.
When Amazon first announced its intentions to expand Prime Air across the pond, Charlotte Vere, who at the time served as the UK’s aviation minister, expressed her belief that the move would further solidify the government’s grasp on emerging technology.
“Amazon’s announcement…is a fantastic example of government and industry coming together to achieve our shared vision for commercial drones to be commonplace in the UK by 2030,” she said in a statement at the time. “Not only will this help boost the economy, offering consumers even more choice while helping keep the environment clean with zero emission technology, but it will also build our understanding how to best use the new technology safely and securely.”