Skip to main content

Amazon Gets FAA Approval to Operate Delivery Drones

On August 29 the Federal Aviation Administration gave its approval for Amazon to operate its fleet of Prime Air delivery drones.

The company now has broad privileges to "safely and efficiently deliver packages to customers."  The certification comes under Part 135 of the FAA regulations, which gives Amazon the ability to carry property on small drones “beyond the visual line of sight” of the operator.

According to Amazon, they are actively flying and testing their technology, but aren't ready to immediately deploy package deliveries at scale.  

Amazon began testing their delivery drones in 2013, in order to develop a system to allow them to dropoff packages at customers' homes in 30 minutes or less.  They petioned the FAA in 2019 to allow deliveries of small packages (5 pounds or less) in areas with low populations.

Amazon now joins Wing (owned by Alphabet) and UPS who also have FAA approval for their drone delivery operations.