Amazon Prime Air completes its first UK commercial drone delivery
Brick and mortar retailers have always had an advantage over their online cousins when it comes to delivery times, walk in, buy your item, walk out, but on demand, real time drone deliveries will erode that advantage
Key takeaways
- The company says the delivery, which took place last week, involved fully autonomous flight, with no human pilot involved in the process.
- Amazon’s drone testing facility on the outskirts of Cambridge has been operating since summer 2015 and that was when the company invited the Civil Aviation Authority to witness its first test flight.
Cite or link to this article
Griffin, M. (2016) 'Amazon Prime Air completes its first UK commercial drone delivery', 311 Institute, 15 December. Available at: https://www.311institute.com/amazon-prime-air-completes-its-first-uk-commercial-drone-delivery/ (Accessed: 1 October 2026).
Amazon announced today that his company has successfully trialled its Prime Air drone delivery service in Cambridge, UK, by delivering a TV streaming stick and bag of popcorn directly to the garden of a nearby customer and the announcement suggests that autonomous aerial delivery by drone could become a commercial reality much sooner than originally thought - albeit only for customers with huge gardens, who live close to the delivery depot, and want items weighing less than 2.6kg. For now...
While the new drone delivery service will now be available seven days a week in the short term it's only going to be available to two lucky customers, and because of flight restrictions the drones will only be able to fly during daylight hours - which in the UK in the middle of winter amounts to about half an hour a day and during clement weather, which again, in the UK in the middle of winter means that these things are inevitably grounded until the summer swings round! Joking aside Amazon says it hopes to expand the offer to "dozens" of customers in the coming months and that for those customers, Prime Air, as it's known, will be available for no extra cost.
The company says the delivery, which took place last week, involved fully autonomous flight, with no human pilot involved in the process. The success was announced by Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, who tweeted: “first ever #AmazonPrimeAir customer delivery is in the books. 13 min—click to delivery,” and while Amazon released a video of the flight no press were invited to witness the test.
Post on X
First-ever #AmazonPrimeAir customer delivery is in the books. 13 min—click to delivery. Check out the video: https://t.co/Xl8HiQMA1S pic.twitter.com/5HGsmHvPlE
Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) December 14, 2016
Amazon’s drone testing facility on the outskirts of Cambridge has been operating since summer 2015 and that was when the company invited the Civil Aviation Authority to witness its first test flight.
Government regulations in the UK are generally considered favourable to companies wanting to experiment with autonomous aircraft, but the restrictions still heavily limit what Amazon can test - Amazon is allowed to test drones that fly beyond line-of-sight in rural and suburban areas, conduct flights where one person operates multiple largely autonomous drones and drones that have sense-and-avoid technology.
Amazon first announced its intention to deliver packages by drone back in 2013, in a lavishly produced special on US TV show 60 Minutes and at the time, Bezos suggested that the company would begin delivery in 2018, a timescale commentators called “hugely optimistic”, citing a number of concerns around theft, liability and safety. The latest limited trials suggest that Amazon still intends to hit that 2018 target, albeit by sidestepping many of the concerns through the limited nature of the rollout and Amazon isn’t alone in the field. 7-Eleven, UPS and many other companies are already conducting their own commercial drone flights, albeit that most of those are in the US.
FAQ
Why does this matter?
Brick and mortar retailers have always had an advantage over their online cousins when it comes to delivery times, walk in, buy your item, walk out, but on demand, real time drone deliveries will erode that advantage
About the author
Matthew Griffin Founder, 311 Institute
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."
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Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 15-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.
An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity program, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.
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Sources and further reading
- View on X → twitter.com
- Civil Aviation Authority caa.co.uk
Source: first published by the 311 Institute on 15 December 2016. Cite as: Griffin, M. (2016). Amazon Prime Air completes its first UK commercial drone delivery. 311 Institute. https://www.311institute.com/amazon-prime-air-completes-its-first-uk-commercial-drone-delivery/
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