Amazon Drone Delivery Has Quietly Started in Chicago’s South Suburbs

Amazon drone delivery has reached Chicago, and it is no longer a plan. Homewood residents started filming a large six-sided drone dropping into backyards in mid-October, and Amazon has since told CBS Chicago that about 21 MK30 drones are based at its Markham fulfillment center. What Amazon has not done is announce a formal launch, name the streets in range, or say which federal approval the flights rest on.

That gap matters for the south suburbs, because the approval that was written specifically for Chicago is still a draft, and Illinois law leaves local villages with almost no say over the flights.

Where Amazon drone delivery in Chicago flies from

The FAA’s draft environmental assessment for Amazon’s Chicago hubs, dated July 2026, covers three Amazon buildings:

• IGQ1, 2201 W. 159th Street, Markham, the site now flying
• ORD5, 7001 Vollmer Road, Matteson
• SIL3, 27W501 North Avenue, West Chicago

For each site the draft analyses up to 1,000 MK30 flights per operating day, between 6 a.m. and 10:30 p.m., up to seven days a week, with deliveries up to 7.5 miles from the building. Amazon’s own staff have talked about an 8-mile radius. The draft puts the nearest homes to the Markham building about 1,900 feet to the northwest. Amazon drone delivery from all three sites would share one Chicago-area approval. Its public comment period ran from 15 July to 14 August, and no final assessment had been posted when we checked.

Amazon drone delivery from Matteson and West Chicago has not been reported yet. Both sit in the same FAA file, so when they start, the same daily ceiling and hours apply.

What the MK30 can carry

The aircraft behind Amazon drone delivery is not small. The FAA draft lists it at 78 lb empty and 83.2 lb at maximum takeoff weight, and Amazon limits the package to 5 lb. That rules out most grocery runs but covers medication, phone accessories and household items, which is where Amazon has pitched drone delivery from the start. Chicago outlets reported in February that Prime members would pay $4.99 per drone order.

Residents quoted by local TV describe the sound as noticeable rather than loud. The FAA draft’s noise appendix is the better guide if you live near the Markham building: it puts a cruising MK30 at 63.7 dBA SEL measured at 200 feet, and caps flights in the first hour and the last half hour of the day at 100 per site.

Why Homewood cannot say no

Illinois made drone regulation an exclusive state power in 2018. Section 42.1 of the Illinois Aeronautics Act (620 ILCS 5/42.1) bars villages and home-rule units from writing their own drone rules; the only exception is a city of more than one million people, which means Chicago itself. Homewood has told residents it cannot ban the flights or regulate drone noise.

That is the same pattern we follow in our tracker of towns fighting Amazon drone hubs: once the FAA has signed off, local fights move to zoning, building permits and state legislators. Markham itself signed a zoning letter in November 2025 saying drone delivery is permitted by right on the IGQ1 lot, according to the FAA draft. Several other states take a different approach to package drops, as our guide to state drone-drop laws explains.

If you live within about 8 miles of the Markham building and want Amazon drone delivery to stop over your home, the practical routes are narrow. You can contact Amazon customer service and ask for the drone delivery team, write to your state legislator, since only Springfield can change the 2018 preemption, or comment when the FAA publishes a final Chicago assessment or a new draft for Matteson and West Chicago. If you want the service, the same rule applies in reverse: eligibility is set by Amazon address by address, and the Amazon app shows whether a drone option appears at checkout.

The open question: which approval Markham flies under

The Chicago assessment is still a draft, but on 28 July the FAA signed a nationwide environmental finding meant to let it approve new Part 135 delivery markets against one national study. Fifteen states, Illinois among them, asked the Second Circuit to throw that finding out in September, DroneXL reported. No public FAA document says which of the two covers Markham, and Amazon has not said either.

If Amazon drone delivery at Markham rests on the national finding, the July comment period on the Chicago draft may have been the only local consultation the south suburbs get. We will update this post when the FAA posts a final Chicago assessment or Amazon names the approval. For the national rollout, see our Prime Air expansion explainer; for the other big retailer, see where Walmart drone delivery is live.