Amazon is bringing drone delivery back to California. The company told the Los Angeles Times it will launch Prime Air from its distribution center in Tracy within a month, flying the MK30 to customers up to 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) away with packages of up to 5 pounds (2.3 kilograms).
Those will be Amazon’s first drone deliveries in California since it closed its Lockeford site in April 2024. DroneXL covered the Lockeford launch when Amazon first announced it in June 2022, and the shutdown less than two years later. Tracy sits about 35 miles (56 kilometers) southwest of Lockeford, in the same San Joaquin County.
Erik Robertson, Prime Air’s regional operations manager for the West, gave the Tracy details in an interview with the Times. Residents get a first look at the aircraft Saturday at the Sweet Dreams Car Show in downtown Tracy.
Amazon Pulled Out of Lockeford in April 2024
Lockeford was Amazon’s first US drone delivery site. Amazon named the San Joaquin County town in June 2022 and began flying there that December. In April 2024 it announced the site would close. California has had no Prime Air service for the 28 months since, and Tracy ends that gap…