Amazon will launch drone delivery in the UK next year

Jeff Bezos first announced that Amazon was working on drone deliveries in 2013. Photo: REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo

Amazon plans to launch drone delivery in the UK next year, more than a decade after Jeff Bezos first promised to deliver parcels by air.

Internet giant Commerce said customers in the UK will be able to have parcels weighing less than five pounds delivered within an hour by Prime Air from next year.

Amazon declined to say where the program would launch, but said it would start with one site and expand. The company said shoppers would be able to choose from «thousands of products» weighing five pounds or less.

Baroness Vere, the aviation minister, said the pilot would «improve our understanding of how best to use the new technology safely and reliably.»

Amazon is already offering limited drone deliveries in two cities in California and Texas. The company said the project will expand to another US city as well as Italy by the end of 2024.

Mr Bezos first announced that Amazon was working on delivery drones in 2013 and began piloting this technology to the UK, from a laboratory in Cambridge, 2016. The project never made it beyond a few test users.

Amazon unveiled new drones that are smaller, quieter and lighter than previous models . Photo: Amazon via AP

Amazon has cut most of its UK team to work on drones in 2021, while mass layoffs at the company earlier this year also affected its Prime Air team.

The project has faced delays and regulatory hurdles, and Several of his drones crashed. during field testing.

However, Amazon began its first drone deliveries in the US last December with approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Initial testing in the US was heavily limited by restrictions such as a ban on drones over roads. .

In the UK, Amazon's first commercial launch was beaten by Royal Mail and Skyports, which together launched a drone delivery service in the Orkney Islands in the summer.

>Currently, drone projects in the UK cannot fly beyond the line of sight of their operators except under strict test conditions, severely limiting the potential for autonomous delivery.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced a series of pilot projects on Tuesday. allowing flights beyond the line of sight. The tests could eventually lead to drones flying near commercial aircraft.

On Wednesday, Amazon also unveiled a new MK30 drone design that it says is smaller, quieter and lighter than previous ones models.

David Carbone, vice president of Amazon Prime Air, said: “We are pleased to announce the expansion of Prime Air delivery internationally, for the first time outside the United States.”

Amazon is not a company. The only drone delivery company in the UK. In September, The Telegraph reported that Irish startup Manna plans to start shipping drones in the UK next year and has applied for a license with the CAA.

Google's drone division, Wing, is currently operational. in Ireland and plans to expand its activities in the UK.