PENDLETON — Amazon Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy announced in November and January plans to lay off 18,000 employees, the biggest workforce reduction in the company’s history. Some personnel in the drone package delivery project were among those losing their jobs, CNBC reporter Annie Palmer said on Friday, Jan. 20.

Amazon’s drone test site in Pendleton was hit particularly hard, with half of the team being let go, one Prime Air employee wrote in a LinkedIn post, which he subsequently deleted.

“I can’t comment on specifics of internal Amazon staffing,” range manager Darryl Abling said. “The tech sector in general is pulling back.”

But he said this is not an issue for the Pendleton UAS Range.

“We have three additional new customers, including an international client,” he said. “Our number of operations and flights activities show folks coming in continually. Our customer base is diverse. If one sector is in a slump, another sector can keep rolling.”

CNBC sources familiar with the matter who asked not to be named for confidentiality said they learned about the cuts to Prime Air, Amazon’s drone program, on Jan. 18, when two senior Amazon executives sent emails notifying employees that those laid off would be informed shortly.

Amazon let staffers go across multiple sites, including its Seattle headquarters. The company declined to say how many Prime Air employees it laid off. Nor did company public relations respond to a request specifically for information on the Pendleton range.

Prime Air was a pet project of founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos. He revealed Amazon’s plans in a 2013 CBS “60 Minutes” segment. Bezos predicted a fleet of Amazon drones could take to the skies within five years.

But the drone program struggled to get off the ground due to a series of crashes and other safety concerns, and now faces internal cost-cutting measures, CNBC said.

Amazon tested package delivery drone designs at the Pendleton Unmanned Aircraft Systems Range. Two prototypes crashed in 2021, one of which burned in a stubble field. Crashes are a normal part of the testing process, Abling said at the time, but Amazon’s project development lasted longer than expected.

Jassy resorted to trimming Amazon’s headcount, which grew massively during the coronavirus pandemic, looking for ways to trim expenses across the company, CNBC said. He zeroed in on some of Amazon’s more unproven bets, such as its Alexa, physical stores and robotics divisions. Now Prime Air has been added to the hit list.

Amazon is now finally testing neighborhood drone delivery in College Station, Texas, northwest of Houston, and Lockeford, California, south of Sacramento. The octocopter drones are large, so require backyards of suitable size in which to land. They are also loud, but within acceptable legal decibel limits.

At the Pendleton range, test flights continue apace, with 23,695 total operations in 2022. That was more than expected, and up from about 7,000 in 2021.