Amazon Launches First UK Drone Delivery Service in Darlington

Amazon has launched the United Kingdom's first drone delivery service with a limited rollout in Darlington, County Durham.

Packages weighing less than 5 pounds (2.2 kg) and holding everyday items like beauty products, batteries and cables now arrive within a 7.5-mile (12 km) radius of Amazon's fulfillment center.

The company sees demand for rapid deliveries and plans a gradual expansion. Rob Shield allowed Amazon to use an Airbnb on his farm for initial test flights. "Initially it was a novelty, so we were ordering everything under the sun," he said. "Pens, paper, chocolates - anything to make it keep coming."

His orders came in shoebox-sized parcels dropped from 12 feet (3.6 m) onto the front garden. "We'd have people come just to see it," Shield said. "Since then, you obviously start realising 'I actually need something today' like tape measures and stuff like that you're always losing - we just order it and it comes."

Amazon took more than a decade to reach this point but believes customers are prepared. "The certainty is people have never told us they want their stuff slower," said David Carbon, vice president of Amazon Prime Air. "If you've got kids and you want fever medication, you want it. You don't want to drive to the store."

In the UK, the drones deliver within two hours. Carbon noted the current US average stands at 36 minutes. Amazon limits flights to a maximum of ten per hour, or up to 100 deliveries a day on weekdays.

Darlington offers a useful test case, though drone deliveries present hurdles, said Dr. Anna Jackman, an associate professor of geography at the University of Reading. "A lot of our demand for delivery services are in urban centres. They are very densely populated, very congested. And the reality is [drone deliveries] don't work well in high-rise buildings."

She noted ideas for rooftop deliveries and central hubs but added, "right now we're not there yet." Eligible customers in Darlington must have a garden or yard.

The National Health Service trials drones for blood supplies in London, and Royal Mail uses them for packages to remote Orkney communities. Amazon deploys its newest MK30 drone in Darlington, equipped with sensors to dodge obstacles from trampolines and washing lines to people and other aircraft.

The drone uses GPS to release packages precisely on approach. "This is effectively an autonomous drone that can do what a pilot does in a flight deck. It can do what ground crews do, and it can deliver a package," Carbon said. "We have a targeted level of safety that's measured in aerospace terms."

Amazon runs drone deliveries in five US states. In early February, an MK30 struck an apartment building in a Dallas suburb, fell and broke apart. Carbon said it drifted after losing GPS signal and clipped the gutter. No one was hurt, and Amazon halted deliveries to such apartments. He called it "things that we learn as we go along," noting 170,000 safe flights.

Operators need beyond visual line of sight, or BVLOS, approval for routine commercial use. Amazon operates this way in Darlington, with remote monitoring from base and coordination with air traffic control at nearby Teeside Airport.

Darlington is Amazon's sole non-US drone delivery site. It features residential zones, major roads and an airport in close proximity, ideal for testing varied conditions near a stocked hub.

The service holds Civil Aviation Authority approval through year-end, with temporary protected airspace until mid-June and expected extension. Darlington Borough Council granted only temporary planning permission due to the scheme's novel nature, allowing concept testing.

Amazon eyes major growth. "We wouldn't be doing it [if it] wasn't commercially viable. It's a business, right? Absolutely, it can be commercially viable, and that's the goal that we're going after," Carbon said.