Amazon Prime Air Expands Drone Delivery to 25 U.S. Cities With New MK-30 Fleet
Amazon has announced a major expansion of its Prime Air drone delivery program, with plans to reach 25 U.S. metropolitan areas by the end of 2026. The rollout centers on the company's new MK-30 delivery drone, which can operate in light rain, moderate winds, and temperatures ranging from 20 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit — addressing the weather limitations that crippled earlier drone delivery attempts.
From Pilot to Scale
Prime Air has been in limited operation since late 2022, when Amazon began drone deliveries in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas. Those early deployments used the MK-27 drone and served a small number of households within tightly defined geographic zones. The service was slow to expand, hampered by regulatory hurdles, range limitations, and the awkward reality that the MK-27 could not fly in rain.
The MK-30 changes the calculus. The hexagonal drone weighs 36 kilograms, carries packages up to 2.25 kilograms (roughly 5 pounds), and has a delivery radius of 12 kilometers from its launch facility. Its sense-and-avoid system uses a combination of radar, cameras, and machine learning to detect and navigate around obstacles including birds, other aircraft, power lines, and moving vehicles.
Amazon says the MK-30 has completed over 100,000 autonomous test flights and achieved a safety record that exceeds FAA requirements for beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations.
How It Works for Customers
Eligible customers will see a "drone delivery" option at checkout for qualifying items. Packages must weigh under 5 pounds and fit within a 14 x 9 x 5 inch container, which covers roughly 85 percent of items purchased on Amazon by volume. Delivery time is estimated at 30 to 60 minutes from order placement.
The drone lands in the customer's yard, drops the package from a height of 12 feet using a controlled descent line, and departs without touching the ground. Customers designate a landing zone through the Amazon app, which uses satellite imagery to verify the area is clear of obstructions.
There is no additional charge for drone delivery during the initial rollout. Amazon is treating the service as a Prime benefit, absorbing the operational cost to drive adoption and collect data on customer behavior.
The Cities
Amazon has not disclosed the full list of 25 cities but confirmed that Phoenix, Dallas, Atlanta, Sacramento, and Orlando are among the first wave. The company is targeting metropolitan areas with favorable regulatory environments, lower air traffic density, and high concentrations of Prime members.
Each city will be served by multiple drone launch facilities, which Amazon calls "delivery stations for the sky." These are small warehouse-like buildings located in suburban and commercial zones, each housing 20 to 40 MK-30 drones. The facilities are highly automated, with robotic systems loading packages onto drones and managing battery swaps between flights.
Regulatory Progress
The expansion has been enabled by a series of FAA approvals that Amazon has secured over the past year. The company received a Part 135 air carrier certificate in 2020, but subsequent approvals for beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations came slowly. In 2025, the FAA issued Amazon a blanket BVLOS waiver covering operations in approved metropolitan areas, a first for a commercial drone delivery operator in the United States.
The waiver requires Amazon to maintain a staffed operations center for each city, with human operators able to override or recall any drone in real time. Amazon must also share flight data with the FAA and file incident reports within 24 hours.
Competitive Landscape
Amazon is not the only company pushing drone delivery. Wing, the Alphabet subsidiary, operates drone services in parts of Virginia and Texas and has expanded internationally in Australia and Finland. Zipline, originally focused on medical supply delivery in Africa, has launched a U.S. consumer service in partnership with Walmart.
However, Amazon's logistics infrastructure gives it a structural advantage. The company already operates the fulfillment centers, sortation facilities, and last-mile delivery stations that feed packages into the drone network. Integrating drones into this existing chain is operationally simpler than building from scratch.
The question is whether consumers will adopt the service. Surveys suggest strong initial interest, with a 2025 McKinsey study finding that 64 percent of U.S. consumers would use drone delivery if available. Noise complaints, privacy concerns, and general unease about autonomous aircraft overhead remain potential obstacles.
Amazon expects to complete 1 million drone deliveries in the United States by the end of 2026, though it acknowledges the target is ambitious given the pace of regulatory and infrastructure buildout.
