For now, only residents of the cities of Lockeford in California and College Station in Texas can order through Prime Air. “Our goal is to safely launch our drones into the air. We are starting in these communities and will gradually expand deliveries over time,” Amazon Prime Air spokeswoman Natalie Banke said earlier this year.
In 2013, former Amazon chief Jeff Bezos presented the Prime Air project. Since then he has completed several flights to Oregon, California and Cambridge in the UK. The company was cleared by the United States Agency of Aviation Authorities (FAA) in 2020 to begin actual deliveries. This permit allows Amazon to deploy drones five days a week and only during the day. Only one drone can fly per region at a time.
Drones aren’t cheap either. In April, US news site Business Insider wrote that an order costs $484 for Amazon. The company hopes to reduce costs to $63 per package by 2025.
