by InTrieste
Amazon said on Sunday that it has abandoned plans to introduce drone deliveries in Italy, pointing to regulatory and business constraints that it said made the project unviable despite progress with aviation authorities.
The U.S.-based e-commerce giant said it had worked constructively with Italy’s civil aviation regulator and made “positive progress” toward securing approval for its unmanned aircraft operations. But in a statement to Reuters, the company said that “the broader business regulatory framework in the country does not, at this time, support our longer-term objectives for this program.”
Italy’s civil aviation authority, ENAC, said the decision came as a surprise and was linked to company policy rather than aviation safety. In a statement, the agency said the move was tied to “recent financial events involving the Group.”
The decision follows a period of growing scrutiny of Amazon’s operations in Italy. Earlier this month, the company agreed to pay €723 million to settle a tax dispute with Italian authorities after prosecutors in Milan investigated its logistics arm over allegations that it had bypassed labor and tax rules.
Just months earlier, Amazon had signaled optimism about the project. In December 2024, it announced that it had successfully completed its first test of drone delivery in Italy, using an MK-30 drone near its San Salvo distribution center in the Abruzzo region. The trial was part of a broader plan to launch commercial drone deliveries in the country.
Amazon has been investing heavily in drone technology as part of its effort to speed up last-mile delivery, particularly for small, time-sensitive packages. Italy was expected to become one of the first European countries to host the service, alongside pilot programs in the United States and Britain.
For now, those ambitions have been put on hold, underscoring the challenges global technology companies face in navigating Europe’s complex regulatory and legal environment.
