Amazon exits College Station, one of its original drone delivery sites
By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill
Amazon Prime Air has announced it would stop providing drone delivery service in College Station, Texas, one of two original pilot program locations for the service.
In a letter to its College Station customers Amazon said its final deliveries in the city would take place on August 31.
“As we continue the process of integrating drone delivery into our existing global fulfillment network and with our lease expiring later this year, the time is right for us to move on from College Station and deploy Prime Air elsewhere across the country,” the letter states.
Along with Lockeford California, College Station was one of the original sites for Prime Air’s launch of its drone delivery operations in late 2022. Although the project was initially welcomed by the community, it later ran into opposition from residents complaining of noise from the company’s launch site. The city and the company were not able to agree on an alternative site for the service.
In its farewell message to customers, Prime Air showed its appreciation to the community it is exiting.
“Working alongside neighbors, local officials, and our partners at Texas A&M University, we’ve created something truly special—delivering thousands of packages by drone and making aviation history together in the Brazos Valley,” the message states.
“College Station will forever hold a unique place in Amazon’s innovation story and we’re deeply grateful for the support, feedback and enthusiasm from our customers and partners throughout this journey.”
In an indication of the probability of its impending exit, in March Amazon confirmed that it would not be renewing the lease on its existing College Station facility.
Previously the company announced that new Prime Air locations would integrate drone deliveries into Amazon’s existing fulfillment network. One example of this business model is Amazon Prime Air’s same-day delivery site in Tolleson, Arizona, which the company launched last year. Unlike at this and future planned locations, the Prime Air drone delivery site in College Station was a standalone drone delivery facility.
Amazon also plans on expanding its Prime Air delivery services into three other Texas cities, Richardson, San Antonio and Waco, and across the country with sites planned for Detroit and Kansas City.
Since it began its first commercial drone delivery operations almost three years ago, Amazon Prime Air has seen its share of ups and downs.
In January 2023 Amazon announced a big layoff slashing 18,000 jobs to improve financials. The company vowed that despite the layoffs, it would continue to back its test delivery programs in Texas and California. In October of that year, Amazon expanded its drone delivery options in College Station to include prescription drugs.
Amazon announced it was suspending its drone operations in Lockeford in April 2024. It said despite that decision, it would continue to expand its drone deliveries into other markets.
Prime Air announced in May 2024 that it had received FAA approval to conduct BVLOS missions around the College Station area. The company said the approval would serve as a blueprint to allow Amazon to expand its drone deliveries into more crowded urban areas.
In July of last year, citing noise complaints from residents, College Station Mayor John Nichols asked the FAA to delay a proposed expansion of Amazon’s drone operations in the city. In November of that year, Amazon Prime Air launched its drone delivery service in the Phoenix Metro Area, with operations based near Tolleson, Arizona.
Amazon in January 2025 said it was suspending its drone delivery services at its facilities in College Station and Tolleson until further notice, in order to implement software changes. The pause in operations came after a safety incident occurred in December at an Amazon testing facility in Pendleton, Oregon, although Amazon said the incident was not directly related to its suspension decision.
In a statement Mayor Nichols said the city had been happy to play host to Amazon during its time there.
“It was a valuable learning experience for them and for the city. While we worked with them to find other business locations in College Station, they have chosen to move on to the next phase of developing their drone delivery service, and we wish them well.”
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Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with almost a quarter-century of experience covering technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P Global Platts, Jim began writing about emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots and drones, and the ways in which they’re contributing to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, a publication of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.
