Amazon to test Prime Air drone delivery service in the UK

Amazon and six other organizations have been selected to take part in a trial looking at expanding the use of drones in the U.K.

The country’s Civil Aviation Authority, or CAA, announced Thursday that the experiment will involve integrating drones that fly beyond the visual line of sight of their operators into U.K. airspace. This means that operators will not have to maintain sight of the drones.

These flights use advanced technologies for navigation, control and to detect other aircraft, the CCA said.

Projects that provide services for remote infrastructure such as offshore windfarms, inspections over the North Sea, and delivering emergency medical supplies, are among those included in the trial.

“Our goal is to make drone operations beyond visual line of sight a safe and everyday reality, contributing to the modernisation of UK airspace and the incorporation of new technology into our skies,” said Sophie O’Sullivan, director of future of flight at the U.K. CCA.

The trial will gather data on how the drones detect and avoid other aircraft, and the electronic signals that can be sent to make them visible to other airspace users and air traffic control.

The flights “have the potential to transform how we deliver goods and provide services, particularly in less well-connected regions,” said Simon Masters, future flight challenge deputy director at U.K. Research and Innovation. He added that the program is key for CCA’s wider Airspace Modernisation Strategy which is focused on making U.K. airspace fit for purpose in the future.

Amazon’s drone delivery service, Prime Air, was a pet project of founder Jeff Bezos, who laid out his plans for the service more than a decade ago.

The e-commerce giant said in October last year that its customers in the U.K. and Italy would have the option to get their packages delivered by a drone from late 2024. The company does not currently have permission to operate drones in the U.K.

“It’s crucial for operators like us to have clear regulatory requirements in order to bring and scale new technologies, such as drone delivery, to customers in the UK,” said David Carbon, vice president and general manager of Amazon Prime Air. “We appreciate the CAA’s effort to partner with us to help bring clarity to the regulations that support commercial drone delivery.”

Prime Air has already launched in the U.S. for packages weighing up to five pounds in College Station, Texas and Lockeford, California. But the expansion of the program has faced regulatory hurdles, delays and the departure of some executives.

A significant number of Prime Air workers were let go in the U.S. last year as part of the largest round of layoffs in the company’s history. The service also faces competition from Wing, a subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet, and Walmart which partnered with Zipline for drone deliveries.