Amazon is expanding its Prime Air drone delivery service, with plans to reach nearly 500 cities and towns across the United States by the end of this year.
The expansion represents roughly a sixfold increase from Prime Air’s current footprint and is expected to make drone delivery available to communities containing tens of millions of customers.
The company’s drones use onboard cameras and sensors to navigate and detect obstacles, including checking that people, pets and vehicles are clear of the delivery area before dropping a package. Prime Air operates under Federal Aviation Administration Part 135 certification.
Prime Air currently operates from 11 locations across 10 U.S. metro areas, including Phoenix, Tampa, Kansas City, Detroit, Omaha, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Waco. Service will soon expand into the Chicago, Syracuse, Cleveland, Atlanta and Boise metro areas, with additional communities planned later this year.
Customers in eligible areas can order millions of products for delivery by drone, including groceries, electronics, cosmetics, medications and household items.
Amazon says nearly all products weighing five pounds or less that fit inside a large shoebox can potentially be delivered by Prime Air. That includes more than 60% of the items customers most frequently purchase from the company.
Deliveries can arrive in as little as 30 minutes, although Amazon says most drone orders arrive around an hour after checkout.
Prime members receive free drone delivery on orders of $50 or more. Orders below $50 carry a $2.99 fee for Prime members, while customers without Prime pay a flat $4.99.
Amazon says it has already completed hundreds of thousands of drone deliveries this year as it works to turn Prime Air into a larger part of its delivery network.
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