Millions more people may be able to get smaller, lightweight Amazon packages delivered by drones by the end of the year under a plan the company announced Wednesday to expand the airborne shipping to suburban areas in nearly 500 U.S. cities.
Customers could receive the drone deliveries in as fast as 30 minutes, Amazon said in a news release. The drones can carry packages up to 5 pounds.
The plan will intensify the battle between Amazon and Walmart to provide consumers with the fastest delivery times. Both giants rely on a mix of drones and drivers to deliver everything consumers have ordered.
Amazon’s plan would expand its drone delivery operation more than sixfold nationwide into hundreds of new communities, including the Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland and Boise metro areas. The drones will primarily fly in the suburbs well away from skyscrapers and major airports that could cause problems.
Hundreds of thousands of packages have already been delivered by Amazon drones this year, but even after this expansion drones will still only handle a fraction of the hundreds of millions of package deliveries each year. In addition to only being able to carry 5 pounds, the drones Amazon builds face countless challenges from tree cover to landscaping and inflatable pools that can make it hard to find a good drop zone.
There are also regulatory hurdles to overcome in every community where Amazon wants to set up operations. Noise concerns also pose a potential challenge.
“It’s still an experiment. It’s still in test and learn mode,” said Sucharita Kodali, who is a retail analyst with Forrester.
Walmart also uses drones in some locations as part of its delivery service, but the core part of its network relies on drivers to bring orders directly from its stores to customers. Walmart didn't immediately respond Wednesday to Amazon's announcement, but the retail giant said early this year that it planned to expand drone delivery service to 150 more stores in partnership with Wing, a division of Alphabet to give it 270 drone delivery locations by 2027.
Initially, consumers might order something delivered by drone because they are curious about it, but it’s not clear how often they will continue to use the service, and Amazon is still working out the economics, Kodali said.
The service will be free for Amazon Prime members who are ordering more than $50 worth of goods, but smaller orders will cost members $2.99. Non-members will pay $4.99 for drone delivery.
Prime members get free deliveries while non-members pay a flat fee if the shipment is under $35 for standard delivery or up to $12.99 for same‑day shipments when available.
Kodali said drones could prove more useful for certain light-weight deliveries that are needed urgently like prescription medications.
DoorDash and other delivery companies also are experimenting with using drones to deliver foods and other goods.
Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy told shareholders in his annual letter in April that the company has learned a great deal by flying drones in 11 sites across Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, and Texas. In each location, the drones launch from an Amazon warehouse and cover about 175 square miles, so it takes multiple drone launching locations to serve a large metro area.
“Prime Air now has a design that’ll scale, plans to serve communities with 30 million customers by year-end, and expects to deliver half a billion packages by the end of this decade (with an aim to deliver inside 30 minutes),” Jassy wrote.
Amazon is also continuing to invest in its warehouses, smaller fulfillment centers closer to customers and its fleet of trucks as the company competes to deliver packages within minutes or hours instead of just days.
Amazon is already certified by the Federal Aviation Administration and the company has been awarded waivers to fly drones beyond the line of sight of the pilots. Amazon has invested in safety measures to help drones avoid collisions with anything else in the sky while they are making deliveries.
The federal government has proposed a rule that would allow more drone operators to fly beyond the horizon, but that hasn’t been finalized yet.
FILE - An Amazon company logo marks the facade of a building, March 18, 2022, in Schoenefeld near Berlin. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Kennedy Center has told a federal court that it would not attempt to return President Donald Trump's name to the building's facade before at least Sept. 8 as another legal battle over the performing arts venue's future takes shape.
In a status report filed late Tuesday, opponents of the move said members of the Kennedy Center's Trump-aligned board “seem intent” on defying an earlier court order requiring the Republican president's name to be removed from the building. The Kennedy Center said it would not move forward with the plans until after Labor Day “at the earliest” to allow time for legal arguments.
Lawyers for Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who is an ex officio member of the board, pressed U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper for an earlier ruling, arguing there is “every reason to believe that Defendants will attempt to effectuate some or part of this latest unlawful resolution at the earliest opportunity after September 8."
A board meeting this month that was expected to largely focus on options to close the Kennedy Center for renovations instead transformed into another push to attach Trump's name to the building, part of a broader move by the president and his supporters to leave a physical mark on the nation's capital.
The board passed a resolution to name the plaza in front of the building after Trump and add his name to the venue's facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” In the filing, Beatty said the board also agreed to add an additional reference to the president if the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million.
In that event, the facade would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
The board also voted to back a two-year closure for renovations, while some of the institution's signature programming, including the Kennedy Center Honors and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, would take place at off-site locations. The National Symphony Orchestra announced this week it would split its upcoming season between six venues in and around Washington.
Cooper ruled in May that letters affixed to the building spelling out Trump’s name were added illegally and he ordered their removal, a decision that the administration failed to persuade courts to overturn. Since then, a tarp has covered the area where the letters were once installed, frustrating those who sought to remove the president's name from the building.
In the latest filing, the Kennedy Center made no commitment to remove the tarp, saying the covering was in place to facilitate the removal of Trump's name and is part of a broader system needed for “water testing and structural repairs to the roof overhang.”
More broadly, Beatty's lawyers questioned the integrity of the board's vote this month, echoing concerns Cooper raised when he called a March vote to shutter the building “ill-informed and seemingly preordained.”
Heading into the August meeting, the Kennedy Center's management said it would provide the board with three options, including a complete closure or a partial closure that would allow “some continued public access and limited programming in spaces unaffected” by the work. A third option would “consider a highly limited series of phased closures to address only the Center’s most serious infrastructure needs while scheduling and maintaining a full slate of programming.”
In Tuesday's filing, the Kennedy Center said a Delta Consulting Group analyst concluded that a partial closure that would play out over four years “would increase the length and cost of construction and lead to substantial safety concerns.”
The analyst "recommended that the Board proceed with a full closure for two years, which would minimize total cost, minimize the amount of time that programming would be subject to disruptions from construction, and best preserve the Center’s reputation as world-class performing-arts venue,” the Kennedy Center said.
Beatty's lawyers, however, noted that materials were provided to the board just two days before the meeting. They said some documents appeared to have been created before Cooper's May ruling and referred to the Kennedy Center's closure that was initially set to take effect on July 6.
The August vote to close the Kennedy Center, Beatty's lawyers argued, “exhibits the same flaws as the first vote.”
The Kennedy Center is seen from the air in Washington, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
