Amazon has been given the Federal Aviation Administration’s approval to operate as a drone airline in the United States, paving the way for it to start offering commercial deliveries on a trial basis, Bloomberg reports. The FAA said that the ruling allows Amazon to “safely and efficiently deliver packages to customers.
Amazon has not revealed when or where it will begin its commercial delivery trials, but as Bloomberg points out, it does have test sites in the Northwest and in the nearby Vancouver area. Amazon has also tested drones in the UK. Still, we’re probably a few years away from a commercial drone delivery service. In part because the FAA still needs to define regulations beyond the trial phase.
“This certification is an important step forward for Prime Air and indicates the FAA’s confidence in Amazon’s operating and safety procedures for an autonomous drone delivery service that will one day deliver packages to our customers around the world,” David Carbon, an Amazon vice president, said in a statement.
Amazon is far from the only company to have gained FAA certification, Bloomberg notes. Google’s sibling company Wing secured its approval to make deliveries last April, and later claimed the title of being the first commercial drone delivery service in the US when it started offering deliveries in Virginia later that year. UPS has also been trialing using drones to transport medical supplies in North Carolina in partnership with Matternet.
