Amazon Plans Drone Deliveries in Nearly 500 US Cities by Year-End

Amazon announced plans to roll out its Prime Air drone service to nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns by the end of the year, marking a sharp acceleration for a program that has lagged behind its original ambitious timeline. The move would expand coverage six times beyond the current footprint of 11 metro areas, with new sites planned in Chicago, Syracuse, Cleveland, Atlanta and Boise, among others. Each location covers roughly 175 square miles and focuses on packages weighing five pounds or less, with most deliveries arriving about an hour after checkout.

The company reported making hundreds of thousands of deliveries so far in 2026, with thousands occurring daily. Vice president David Carbon has projected one million deliveries for the full year, calling Prime Air the highest-demand drone service in the industry. These figures come five months after internal remarks in which Carbon outlined aggressive growth targets. Amazon also highlighted its Detect-and-Avoid safety system as it prepares for broader operations.

The expansion follows a 2024 regulatory approval that allowed longer-range flights, moving the service beyond early test sites near Dallas and Phoenix. Founder Jeff Bezos first described the concept in 2013, promising 30-minute deliveries by drone. Progress since then has been uneven, marked by regulatory hurdles, technical setbacks, staff reductions and community resistance during pilot phases.

Residents in existing and upcoming service areas have raised repeated objections about drone noise, privacy intrusions and potential effects on property values. Some have reported drones striking cranes, power lines, gardens and buildings during testing. These complaints come from neighborhoods that Amazon targets for rapid package drops, often without broad public input on how the technology alters daily life in suburban and urban communities.

The service remains limited to small, lightweight items, leaving larger packages to traditional delivery networks that rely on human workers. While Amazon promotes drone flights as efficient and low-emission, critics note that scaling operations could shift burdens onto local residents through constant overhead traffic and data collection from aerial cameras. Regulators have granted approvals, yet questions persist about long-term oversight as the company pushes into dozens more cities later this year.

Amazon frames the rollout as a step toward reliable same-day delivery for millions of customers. Communities affected by the change continue to press for stronger safeguards on noise levels and flight paths before the program grows further.