Amazon is planning to launch Britain’s first drone delivery service in Darlington as it looks for new ways to send customers their orders.
The retail giant said it would seek permission to send drones from its warehouse on the outskirts of the town but did not specify when it hopes to start the trial.
The ecommerce giant said customers will be able to opt into drone delivery, which could mean packages arrive in as little as 15 minutes, and those not interested will have their orders delivered as usual.
Amazon first started testing drone flights in Cambridgeshire almost a decade ago, although the programme faced multiple setbacks and was eventually moved to the US.
The retailer recently suspended flights of its new MK30 drones in Arizona and Texas after two of its drones crashed during light rain in its testing facility.
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Amazon has since rolled out software changes that it said would allow the aircraft to better deal with wet weather. It said the crashes were not the main reason for the updates.
The online giant has been searching for appropriate launch sites in the UK for months and has chosen Darlington, which has a population of just over 100,000, after considering factors such as airspace requirements, local weather and its existing warehouse operations.
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 partnership with regulators and the communities we serve, and we are working to do the same in the UK.
“We are announcing that Prime Air is taking steps to start planning for initial flights from our fulfilment centre in Darlington.”
The retailer said it will seek planning permission to refit its local fulfilment centre with its flight operations facilities and apply for authorisation from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) 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,” it added.
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