Anadolu: Amazon said Wednesday that it plans to expand drone deliveries to nearly 500 US cities and towns by year’s-end, signaling progress for a project that has moved slowly since founder Jeff Bezos first introduced his vision for the service nearly 13 years ago.
The expansion of Prime Air would increase its current reach sixfold, according to a company statement.
The announcement comes five months after David Carbon, Prime Air’s vice president, expressed confidence in the program and outlined ambitious expansion targets during an internal all-hands meeting, according to CNBC.
At the time, Carbon said that Prime Air would complete 1 million deliveries this year and said Amazon has the “highest demand drone delivery service in the industry.”
Amazon said Wednesday that it has already completed hundreds of thousands of deliveries this year, with thousands taking place each day.
Bezos, who left his role as CEO five years ago, announced in 2013 that Amazon would develop a drone network capable of delivering small packages within 30 minutes or less.
Since then, the initiative has encountered regulatory delays, workforce reductions, technical difficulties, and resistance from some communities where Amazon carried out its early pilot programs.
The company in 2024 received a critical greenlight from regulators to do long-range drone deliveries, and over the past year has expanded beyond initial markets near Dallas, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona to 11 metro areas.
