Amazon is seeking permission to launch drones from its warehouse in Darlington, County Durham, in the latest step towards using the devices to deliver packages to homes.
The technology company is to hold a public meeting with local people next week as it seeks permission from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to use the airspace around its warehouse on the edge of the town, in the north-east of England.
Amazon plans to hire a team to launch same-day drone deliveries, under a service called Prime Air, once it has secured approval from the local council to take off and land at the site.
Customers within 7.5 miles of the warehouse, excluding certain areas not suitable for drones, will be able to opt to use the service or more traditional delivery methods once it launches.
In order to sign up, customers select drone delivery as an option and select a delivery location on an aerial image of their address displayed on the screen.The battery-powered drones can carry one package weighing up to 2.3kg.
Amazon was given the green light by the CAA to test-fly drones beyond a human controller’s line of sight in the UK at an undisclosed trial site last August.
The company’s plans for commercial deliveries have taken longer than hoped as it had said in 2023 its ambition was to launch home deliveries via drone in the UK and Italy before the end of 2024.
It is nearly eight years since the tech company announced the completion of its first commercial drone delivery in Cambridge and but it later scaled back its UK drone arm in 2021.
Prime Air, which began deliveries in 2022, already operates in the US, in College Station in Texas, Tolleson in Arizona and San Salvo in Italy, where tests began last month.
All of those services have recently been suspended for several months. In December, two drones crashed at a testing site in Oregon because of a software malfunction caused by light rain, with one reportedly catching fire on impact.
Amazon is now carrying out a software update and has said the crashes were not the “primary reason” for the pause.
A further test site in Lockeford, California, ceased operating last year.
A spokesperson for Amazon said it could not yet say when deliveries might kick off in Darlington, adding: “While there is still much work to do, this is an exciting step forward.”
“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.”
Amazon’s move comes amid wider efforts from across industries to get drone deliveries off the ground in the UK.
The most advanced is Royal Mail, which has tested delivery via drones to remote communities, such as the Shetland Islands. Last August, it extended the UK’s first commercial drone mail service in Orkney to at least February 2026.
Launched in 2023, the electronic drones take letters and parcels between islands, where staff then complete their usual delivery routes.
In 2023, BT, the telecoms group, invested £5m in a startup consortium to try to create a “drone corridor” across southern and central England to carry cargo and other supplies.
The consortium hopes to gain clearance for the 165-mile “drone superhighway” – above Reading, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Coventry and Rugby and is in talks with the CAA around rules and regulation to enable drone use beyond visual line of sight.
The plan forms part of BT’s Project Skyway which also includes services such as a partnership with the Australian company DroneShield to provide detection and response services identifying drones that breach airspace and site limits.