Amazon’s delivery drones are flying to 500 more cities

If Amazon gets its way, your next emergency phone-charger order may not arrive in a van, but buzz into your yard from the sky before you have time to forget you ordered it.

That possibility is about to become real for many more people.

On Wednesday, Amazon announced that Prime Air will expand to nearly 500 cities and towns across the United States by the end of 2026.

That would represent a sixfold increase from the drone service’s current footprint.

For now, Prime Air operates from just 11 sites spanning 10 metropolitan areas in Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, and Texas.

Amazon plans to launch next in the Chicago, Syracuse, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Boise metro areas, with more communities expected to follow later this year.

Does that mean Amazon is building 500 new drone facilities? Not quite.

The company is counting every city and town reached by the service, rather than individual launch sites.

Each existing Prime Air site covers an area of roughly 175 square miles, allowing one facility to serve multiple communities.

Even then, not every address within a listed ZIP code will necessarily qualify, and Amazon has not yet published a full list of the nearly 500 places included in its plans.

SEE ALSO: Amazon just made its first legit delivery via drone If your address does make the cut, drone delivery will appear as an option while shopping and at checkout.

Most products weighing 5 pounds or less and fitting inside a large shoebox are eligible, which Amazon says encompasses more than 60 percent of the items its customers purchase most frequently.

That leaves room for more than just a forgotten tube of toothpaste.

Groceries, cosmetics, medications, electronics, and even products like iPhones, AirPods, Samsung Galaxy phones, and Ring doorbells can all potentially make the trip by drone.