Amazon faces drone delivery brick wall despite FAA approval

Amazon’s approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to operate its fleet of Prime Air delivery drones, is a win for the e-commerce giant. But the company still has hurdles to jump until drone delivery becomes a reality, argues GlobalData.

Amazon has been talking up its plans in this space since 2013. The FAA approval is a major step towards its dream of using drones to deliver to customers within 30 minutes of an order being taken.

However, full scale implementation remains a long way off due to public security and service related challenges. Rupantar Guha, Associate Project Manager for Thematic Research at GlobalData, comments: “Amazon’s competitors in this space, Alphabet’s Wing and UPS, already received FAA approval for drone delivery last year.”

“And they have not yet been able to implement large scale services due to concerns such as drones either being stolen or shot down, the impact of weather and flight space restrictions in the vicinity of government facilities."

"Amazon will face the same brick wall and must address these challenges while also satisfying regulators that it has an efficient service infrastructure if it is to turn its drone dream into a commercial reality," he adds.

It has performed basic trials in the UK and Japan, although these were largely to prove that the technology worked. The restrictions on drone operations beyond visual line of sight and the lack of regulations for commercial drone operations in those countries have prevented the launch of services.

Amazon will now have to wait until the FAA issues regulations for commercial drone operations that take place over crowds, Guha concludes.