Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) plans to expand its Prime Air drone delivery service to nearly 500 cities and towns across the U.S. by the end of 2026. In a blog post on Wednesday, the company revealed the expansion plan, indicating a sixfold increase from its current footprint.

David Carbon, vice president of Amazon Prime Air, stated that the company is pairing ultrafast drone delivery with low prices and selection. Amazon’s drone delivery service plans to launch soon in Chicago, Syracuse, Cleveland, Atlanta and Boise, with additional communities expected to be added later this year.

Delivery Volume and Operational Scale

The company disclosed that it has already made hundreds of thousands of deliveries this year, with thousands being made daily. This volume positions Amazon as the highest demand drone delivery service in the industry, according to the company.

This update follows a projection by Carbon five months ago, where he projected 1 million drone deliveries in 2026 during an internal all-hands meeting. Carbon noted in March that customers continue to expect faster deliveries and that the company has not yet reached a point where further speed improvements provide diminishing returns.

Competitive Landscape and Challenges

Amazon’s drone delivery service operates within a competitive market. Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) subsidiary, Wing, has surpassed 1 million commercial deliveries and operates in 20 U.S. markets through partnerships with Walmart Inc. (NASDAQ: WMT) and DoorDash Inc. (NASDAQ: DASH). Zipline has completed 2 million deliveries across four continents.

Amazon has faced operational challenges. In early 2025, the company paused commercial drone delivery in Texas and Arizona following the crash of two of its latest models at a testing facility in rainy weather. The company fixed the aircraft’s software before resuming operations.

What the Numbers Show

Amazon’s broader logistics network delivered over 13 billion items globally in 2025 at record speeds. More than 8 billion items reached U.S. Prime members the same or next day, representing a 30% increase in U.S. same- or next-day deliveries compared to the previous year. While drone delivery volumes remain a fraction of total shipments, the sixfold expansion target suggests a strategic push to integrate autonomous delivery into its core logistics infrastructure.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, alongside the National Employment Law Project, Action Lab, and Alliance for a Greater New York, filed a complaint with the New York Department of Labor on Aug. 18, 2026. The group alleges that Amazon violated the New York State Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (NY WARN) Act by failing to provide required notice or severance to workers affected by mass layoffs.

The complaint centers on Amazon’s use of Delivery Service Partners (DSPs), which the unions describe as shell corporations used to shield the company from legal responsibility. Under the NY WARN Act, private employers with more than 50 workers in the state must provide at least 90 days’ advance written notice or severance before mass layoffs affecting 25 or more people.

Key Allegations

According to the report released simultaneously with the complaint:

• Amazon closed 35 DSPs in New York since 2018.
• These closures resulted in the loss of over 3,500 jobs.
• A majority of affected drivers did not receive the legally mandated advance notice.
• Amazon may owe as much as $11 million in back wages.

What the Numbers Show

The data highlights a significant concentration of job losses within the transportation and warehousing sector. Since 2023, 25 percent of all workers laid off in New York’s entire transportation and warehousing industry were Amazon drivers. This figure suggests that Amazon’s operational changes account for a quarter of the sector’s total workforce reduction during this period, despite the company’s public positioning as a job creator.

Regulatory and Legislative Context

The Teamsters are demanding that the Office of the Commissioner of Labor investigate Amazon’s control over its third-party contractors. The unions argue that because most DSPs have Amazon as their only customer, the termination of a contract effectively shuts down the entire business, triggering WARN Act obligations that Amazon allegedly evades.

In parallel, the Teamsters and allies are campaigning for the Delivery Protection Act in New York City. The proposed legislation would end the subcontracting model and require Amazon to directly hire its drivers. Paul Sonn, State Policy Program Director at NELP, stated that the report highlights DSPs as “pawns of a giant corporation” rather than bona fide independent businesses.

Randy Korgan, Director of the Teamsters Amazon Division, called Amazon a “parasitic white-collar crime syndicate,” while Tom Gesualdi, President of Teamsters Joint Council 16, asserted that Amazon has killed more logistics jobs than any other company in New York.