# Amazon Maps Sixfold Growth for Prime Air Drone Deliveries

> The company plans to reach nearly 500 cities and towns by the end of 2026, adding metro Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Boise and Syracuse to its coverage.

- Publication: Go Big News
- By Go Big News Staff (Staff News)
- Category: Ecommerce
- Published: 2026-08-20T14:33:00+00:00
- Canonical: http://www.gobignews.com/ecommerce/amazon-maps-sixfold-growth-for-prime-air-drone-deliveries

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Amazon plans to expand its Prime Air drone delivery service to nearly 500 cities and towns by the end of 2026, a sixfold increase over its current footprint, Retail Dive reports.

Markets slated to come online include metro Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Boise, Idaho, and Syracuse, New York, along with additional communities. The service currently operates in parts of seven states — Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska and Texas — and David Carbon, Amazon's vice president of Prime Air, said the program has completed hundreds of thousands of drone deliveries so far in 2026.

Prime Air carries items weighing five pounds or less that fit inside a large shoebox, a range Amazon says covers more than 60% of its most frequently purchased products, spanning everything from Apple iPhones and Ring doorbells to groceries and household goods. The fastest deliveries arrive in about 30 minutes, and most orders land within roughly an hour, though drones stay grounded at night and in heavy wind or poor weather.

Deliveries cost $2.99 for Prime members, with the fee waived on orders over $50, and $4.99 for customers without a membership.

The expansion marks a new phase for a program Amazon has been building for more than a decade. Founder Jeff Bezos first unveiled the drone delivery concept in 2013, and the company began regular customer deliveries in 2022 in College Station, Texas, and Lockeford, California, working through years of regulatory approvals and technical development along the way. Udit Madan, Amazon's senior vice president of worldwide operations, said the company has spent those years deliberately building a drone delivery program designed to scale.

Within Amazon's broader logistics network, drones slot in as the fastest tier of an increasingly speed-focused delivery operation — a same-hour option for the small, everyday items that make up a large share of its order volume.

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## Companies in this story

- Amazon: http://www.gobignews.com/company/amazon