The UK Civil Aviation Authority has granted Amazon a more advanced safety certification for its drone deliveries, enabling the rollout of Amazon’s Prime Air drone service to thousands of additional premises.

From about 600 premises in the Darlington area that are within range of Amazon’s local warehouse, the service will now be able to reach about 8,000.

The Specific Assurance and Integrity Level 4 (SAIL 4) authorisation allows aircraft to fly further and pass over urban areas.

Airborne deliveries

Theunis Scheepers, director of Prime Air Europe, said the authorisation was the culmination of “years of disciplined engineering” and a commitment to safety.

The service allows a range of items to be delivered in under an hour to premises that have a garden, yard or driveway.

Amazon offers a range of items under the service that weigh under 5lb and can fit into a large shoebox.

Broader rollout

The company in February began test flights around its site outside of Darlington, in County Durham, and in May began offering a commercial service.

In September it said it would seek approval to extend drone deliveries to a broader local area, as it eyes eventual expansion across the UK.

In July, an investigation was launched after an Amazon drone delivering a package crashed into a garden in Darlington, an incident Amazon said was caused by a collision with an object extending above the roof of a moving vehicle.

Food service

Other incidents have been reported with Amazon’s US drone delivery service, but the company says the proportion of flights experiencing issues is not high.

Amazon’s MK30 drone travels at around 400 feet from the ground, then descends to drop items to the surface.

Zipline, a company working with Uber Eats on drone deliveries for food orders, uses a different approach under which a drone “mothership” hovers at a higher altitude while lowering separate pod to the ground via a cable.