Some residents in rural B.C. may be wondering if the object they see flying above them is a bird or a plane.
But it could, in fact, be a drone carrying a Superman boxset.
Online retail giant Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has confirmed it has been testing airborne drones in rural B.C. as part of a pilot program it hopes to get off the ground to deliver small packages to customers.
“We are rapidly experimenting and iterating on Amazon Prime Air, working to make it a reality; this includes controlled flight testing in multiple international locations, including outdoors at a rural test site in Canada. We’re excited about this technology and one day using it to deliver packages to customers in 30 minutes or less,” spokeswoman Kristen Kish said in an email to Business In Vancouver.
Amazon later clarified to BIV the “rural test site in Canada” is in B.C.
When asked about the specific location, when the pilot program began and how long Amazon expects to test drones in Canada, Kish said the company had “nothing further to share, but I will certainly let you know if that changes.”
Last week, Amazon vice-president of global public policy Paul Misener told a U.S. Senate aviation subcommittee that the American's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been very slow to approve drones.
While the FAA has approved about 50 commercial drone applications, Transport Canada has given the green light to more than 1,500 applications between 2010 and 2013, according to its website.
UPDATED:
A spokesman for Transport Canada said a special flight operations certificate was issued to Amazon’s Canadian arm in December 2014 and is valid for one year.
He added Transport Canada had issued nearly 1,700 of the certificates as of the end of 2014.
