Amazon aims to expand Prime Air delivery drones to nearly 500 US neighborhoods by year's end
Amazon plans a sixfold expansion of its Prime Air drone delivery service to nearly 500 US cities and towns by the end of 2026, as growing rollout across companies fuels rising complaints about noise and safety.
Amazon has announced plans to expand its Prime Air delivery drone service sixfold, reaching nearly 500 cities and towns across the United States by the end of 2026. On August 19, the company said it would soon launch operations in the metropolitan areas of Chicago, Cleveland, Atlanta, Syracuse (New York), and Boise (Idaho), with additional locations planned later in the year.
Each Prime Air site covers roughly 175 square miles, with delivery times of half an hour to an hour. The service already operates from Amazon warehouses in ten cities across seven states, mostly in suburban areas of Phoenix, Tampa, Kansas City, Omaha, Baton Rouge, Detroit, Houston, and several Texas cities.
Rivals scaling up too
Competitors are also expanding. Walmart, partnering with Wing and Zipline, recently surpassed one million drone deliveries from 66 stores in four states and aims to expand to more than 270 stores by 2027. Zipline separately announced a partnership with Uber targeting one million drone deliveries per day by the end of 2029, having already completed more than 2.7 million deliveries worldwide. DoorDash also received FAA certification in July to begin building its own delivery drone program.
The electric drones typically carry items weighing up to about five pounds that fit within a large shoebox, though strong wind, rain, snow, and extreme cold can ground them.
Safety and noise concerns
Zipline, whose drones have collectively flown over 100 million miles, is seen as having the strongest safety record, aided by backup parachutes. Amazon's Prime Air has faced several incidents, including two drones colliding with a construction crane in Arizona and additional mishaps in Texas, prompting ongoing investigations by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board.
However, the most frequent complaints concern noise rather than safety, with residents reporting drones passing overhead multiple times a day. Some Richardson, Texas residents held a public protest against Prime Air noise in June. Amazon says it conducts community outreach before launching service and continues to address resident concerns, including privacy, maintaining that its drones do not monitor or record people.
