Amazon has filed its first local applications in Texas for a Prime Air drone delivery site in West Dallas, the first of 22 planned “drone paddocks” across the state, according to Boston-based BLDUP, a commercial real estate and construction technology platform that reported the filings on April 17.

The West Dallas flagship will expand an existing Amazon fulfillment center to include landing pads, shade canopies, and a modular office to monitor performance, BLDUP said. The $25 million development is slated to begin construction this summer, with test flights for final Federal Aviation Administration approval possibly starting as early as August. An FAA environmental review lists a Dallas site at 1301 Chalk Hill Road in West Dallas among the Texas locations.

Scaling Prime Air across Texas

Amazon’s Prime Air program first launched in 2022 with flagship sites in the United Kingdom, Lockeford, Calif., College Station, and Phoenix. Amazon’s MK30 delivery drone entered commercial service in College Station and the Phoenix metro area in November 2024. More recently, the service has ramped up in Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Waco in Texas, as well as Kansas City, the suburbs of Detroit,  Tampa, and Tolleson, Ariz., according to FreightWaves.

In Texas, Amazon’s drone delivery expansion is taking shape through 22 proposed locations, each designated as a Prime Air Drone Delivery Center, or PADDC.

According to BLDUP, the sites would include a ground control station. BLDUP said the filings didn’t specify whether flights will be manually piloted, noting only that Amazon’s current MK30 drone has “autonomous capabilities” and redundant safety features.

Amazon’s MK30 drone has a round-trip range of up to 15 miles

The MK30, approved by the FAA in 2024, is an electric vertical takeoff-and-landing drone that weighs 78 pounds and carries packages up to five pounds. With a round-trip delivery range of up to 15 miles, it can deliver packages as far as 7.5 miles from its base.

In February, the FAA issued a Finding of No Significant Impact and Record of Decision for Amazon’s proposed drone delivery operations in Texas, determining the expansion would not significantly affect the human environment. The environmental review evaluates Amazon’s request to amend its operational specifications to expand drone package delivery operations to 22 listed locations across the state, including several in North Texas including Dallas, Richardson, Carrollton, and Fort Worth.

The document describes potential operations of up to 1,000 delivery flights per day per location, with service occurring between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.

The FAA found that noise and other impacts would remain below federal significance thresholds and that operations aren’t expected to adversely affect wildlife or surrounding communities. The proposed expansion would enable Amazon to conduct operations beyond visual line of sight using its MK30 unmanned aircraft system under its existing approvals.

Richardson as a proving ground

Prime Air launched in Richardson in early December and has since delivered more than 13,000 customer orders, Sam Bailey, Amazon’s senior manager of economic development policy, told the Richardson City Council in March, according to Community Impact. The service offers “a selection of more than 60,000 items in 60 minutes or less” from the Richardson facility, Amazon spokesperson Cait Freda told The Dallas Morning News, which reported on Amazon’s North Texas expansion on April 21.

“We are always exploring new ways to get customers a wider selection at faster speeds,” Freda said in an emailed statement to DMN. The company is “working with local officials on new ways to expand our fast, reliable drone delivery service to reach even more customers in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area.”

‘A multi-year invention cycle’

In his April 9 annual letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote that Prime Air is one part of a broader push to make delivery faster. “We know how much customers crave it, and we see higher order completion rates when delivery promises are faster,” he wrote. “Just three years ago, two-day delivery was the gold standard. We pushed that bar to one day, and have been working tirelessly to make it same day.”

Prime Air “now has a design that’ll scale,” Jassy wrote, with plans “to serve communities with 30 million customers by year-end” and an expectation of delivering “half a billion packages by the end of this decade (with an aim to deliver inside 30 minutes).”

Jassy added that building an autonomous delivery drone that can deliver millions of items in 30 minutes takes more than a year: “It’s a multi-year invention cycle.”

Don’t miss what’s next. Subscribe to Dallas Innovates.

Track Dallas-Fort Worth’s business and innovation landscape with our curated news in your inbox Tuesday-Thursday.