Amazon has requested Federal Aviation Administration permission to use drones to deliver packages to customers in less than 30 minutes.

The Seattle-based online shopping company sent the FAA a letter Wednesday stating that a company research and development lab has been working on aerial vehicles as part of Amazon Prime Air, Al Jazeera America reported.

"We believe customers will love it, and we are committed to making Prime Air available to customers worldwide as soon as we are permitted to do so," Amazon said in the letter.

The company said its drone could go faster than 50 miles per hour and haul up to a 5-pound package. It also noted that 86 percent of the company's deliveries weigh 5 pounds or less.

Amazon announced its Prime Air program in December on CBS news show "60 Minutes," saying it would start delivering packages using self-guided aircraft.

Hobbyists and model aircraft makers are permitted by the FAA to fly drones. Commercial use is mostly prohibited. Amazon is allowed to test its drones in indoor facilities or in other countries, but not outdoors in the state of Washington.

Amazon asked the FAA if it could be exempt from the outdoor ban as long as it tests the drones over its own private property and away from airports or other areas with aviation activity.

"We're continuing to work with the FAA to meet Congress's goal of getting drones flying commercially in America safely and soon," said Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of global public policy, in a statement. "We want to do more research and development close to home."

The aviation agency "is slowly moving forward" with commercial drone guidelines, The Associated Press reported. Last year, Congress told it to allow drones by September 2015, but the agency has insisted that the process requires more time and has already missed several important deadlines, the AP said.

According to the FAA, only two drone models -- Boeing and the Insitu Group's ScanEagle and AeroVironment's Puma -- are commercially certified, and only in Alaska. BP is using one of the drones to survey pipelines, while the other is surveilling wildlife and monitoring oil spills for emergency response crews.