Amazon exits School Station, one among its unique drone supply websites
By DRONELIFE Options Editor Jim Magill
Amazon Prime Air has introduced it might cease offering drone supply service in School Station, Texas, one among two unique pilot program areas for the service.
In a letter to its School Station clients Amazon mentioned its remaining deliveries within the metropolis would happen on August 31.
“As we proceed the method of integrating drone supply into our present world achievement community and with our lease expiring later this yr, the time is correct for us to maneuver on from School Station and deploy Prime Air elsewhere throughout the nation,” the letter states.
Together with Lockeford California, School Station was one of many unique websites for Prime Air’s launch of its drone supply operations in late 2022. Though the challenge was initially welcomed by the neighborhood, it later bumped into opposition from residents complaining of noise from the corporate’s launch web site. The town and the corporate weren’t capable of agree on an alternate web site for the service.
In its farewell message to clients, Prime Air confirmed its appreciation to the neighborhood it’s exiting.
“Working alongside neighbors, native officers, and our companions at Texas A&M College, we’ve created one thing actually particular—delivering hundreds of packages by drone and making aviation historical past collectively within the Brazos Valley,” the message states.
“School Station will without end maintain a novel place in Amazon’s innovation story and we’re deeply grateful for the assist, suggestions and enthusiasm from our clients and companions all through this journey.”
In a sign of the likelihood of its impending exit, in March Amazon confirmed that it might not be renewing the lease on its present School Station facility.
Beforehand the corporate introduced that new Prime Air areas would combine drone deliveries into Amazon’s present achievement community. One instance of this enterprise mannequin is Amazon Prime Air’s same-day supply web site in Tolleson, Arizona, which the corporate launched final yr. In contrast to at this and future deliberate areas, the Prime Air drone supply web site in School Station was a standalone drone supply facility.
Amazon additionally plans on increasing its Prime Air supply companies into three different Texas cities, Richardson, San Antonio and Waco, and throughout the nation with websites deliberate for Detroit and Kansas Metropolis.
Because it started its first industrial drone supply operations nearly three years in the past, Amazon Prime Air has seen its share of ups and downs.
In January 2023 Amazon introduced an enormous layoff slashing 18,000 jobs to enhance financials. The corporate vowed that regardless of the layoffs, it might proceed to again its check supply packages in Texas and California. In October of that yr, Amazon expanded its drone supply choices in School Station to incorporate prescribed drugs.
Amazon introduced it was suspending its drone operations in Lockeford in April 2024. It mentioned regardless of that call, it might proceed to broaden its drone deliveries into different markets.
Prime Air introduced in Might 2024 that it had obtained FAA approval to conduct BVLOS missions across the School Station space. The corporate mentioned the approval would function a blueprint to permit Amazon to broaden its drone deliveries into extra crowded city areas.
In July of final yr, citing noise complaints from residents, School Station Mayor John Nichols requested the FAA to delay a proposed growth of Amazon’s drone operations within the metropolis. In November of that yr, Amazon Prime Air launched its drone supply service within the Phoenix Metro Space, with operations primarily based close to Tolleson, Arizona.
Amazon in January 2025 mentioned it was suspending its drone supply companies at its amenities in School Station and Tolleson till additional discover, as a way to implement software program modifications. The pause in operations got here after a security incident occurred in December at an Amazon testing facility in Pendleton, Oregon, though Amazon mentioned the incident was indirectly associated to its suspension choice.
In a press release Mayor Nichols mentioned town had been pleased to play host to Amazon throughout its time there.
“It was a precious studying expertise for them and for town. Whereas we labored with them to search out different enterprise areas in School Station, they’ve chosen to maneuver on to the following section of growing their drone supply service, and we want them properly.”
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Jim Magill is a Houston-based author with nearly a quarter-century of expertise protecting technical and financial developments within the oil and gasoline business. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P World Platts, Jim started writing about rising applied sciences, similar to synthetic intelligence, robots and drones, and the methods by which they’re contributing to our society. Along with DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared within the Houston Chronicle, U.S. Information & World Report, and Unmanned Methods, a publication of the Affiliation for Unmanned Automobile Methods Worldwide.
