Amazon Prime Air has announced plans for Darlington to be the first UK location to see parcels delivered by drones.
The company’s fulfilment centre is just a few miles from the town centre, making it the prime location to reach their local customer base.
In a statement, Amazon said: “A planning application will be lodged with the local authority which will seek permission to build our flight operations facilities at the site, along with applying for authorisation from the Civil Aviation Authority to fly a drone in the airspace.
“Once those agreements are in place, we will be able to begin hiring team members to launch drone delivery. We’ll continue to work closely with the CAA as they develop the regulatory framework to make commercial drone delivery a reality in the UK. In the meantime, we will also engage with the Darlington community to answer questions and collect feedback as we seek to offer this new option for delivery.”
In 2024, the Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that Amazon Prime Air were one of the six organisations selected to trial drone operations beyond visual line of sight in a move to test the viability of extended drone use in the UK and make drone operations beyond the operator’s visual line of sight a “safe and every day reality”.
The announcement comes as the regulator makes progress on their plans to further modernise UK airspace, using the trials to gather data to inform future regulation which in turn will enable the broader use of advanced air mobility technologies.
Further commenting on their plans, Amazon said: “We are ready and excited to make drone delivery a reality for our UK customers. We have built safe and reliable drone delivery services elsewhere in the world in close relationship with regulators and the communities we serve, and we are working to do the same in the UK.”
Andrew Heath, Director at Coverdrone, said: “There is obviously still a long way to go before Amazon’s drones will be flying parcels over Darlington, but it’s good to see this latest announcement and some progress being made. We hope these developments will further support a positive shift towards broader use of advanced air mobility technologies in the UK, with the potential for increased and wider adoption of BVLOS operations in the future.
“As key players in the drone insurance market, we have always been relied on and trusted by drone operators to offer an effective solution that fully meets both their current and long-term insurance needs. Coverdrone has significantly invested in our system capabilities over the years, and this has allowed us to offer quick and efficient quotations and insurance coverage for BVLOS operations for quite some time now. This platform ensures we are well positioned to support drone operators with their insurance requirements as drone utilisation evolves.
“We cannot wait to see the results of this trial, along with the others planned throughout 2025, and how they help to shape the future of drone use in the UK going forward.”