{"id":825249,"date":"2026-07-25T13:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T13:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/825249\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T13:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T13:04:14","slug":"worlds-longest-flight-is-put-to-the-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/825249\/","title":{"rendered":"World\u2019s longest flight is put to the test"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel\u2019s weekly newsletter<\/a>. Get news about destinations, plus the latest in aviation, food and drink, and where to stay.\n<\/p>\n

\n In travel news this week: the world\u2019s most powerful passports, how edible ants got a chef in trouble, plus a new milestone in ultra-long-haul air travel.\n <\/p>\n

\n Having a nice relaxing weekend? Spare a thought for the weary new Airbus A350-1000ULR, which is cooling its jets in Melbourne after completing its first-ever nonstop test flight from France. And it has to do it all over again on Monday.\n <\/p>\n

\n Clocking in at more than 19 hours for the Toulouse to Melbourne test, the scheduled routes could stretch up to 22 hours and more than 10,000 miles.\n <\/p>\n

\n The plane has been developed to fly the Australian airline Qantas\u2019 upcoming record-breaking route from Sydney to London. It will be the world\u2019s\u2019s longest non-stop commercial flight when it launches in October 2027.\n <\/p>\n

\n A crew of four Airbus flight test pilots and five flight test engineers put the aircraft\u2019s systems through their paces on the flight from Toulouse on Thursday, including the extra 20,000-liter fuel tank that holds the juice to keep it in the air for nearly a full day.\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN\u2019s Richard Quest took a look inside the ultra-long-range plane last month. Watch the video below.\n <\/p>\n

\"qantas<\/p>\n

Inside the new plane made for a 22-hour nonstop flight\n <\/p>\n

Qantas just revealed the first \u2018Project Sunrise\u2019 aircraft. It’s a plane designed to operate the world’s longest non-stop commercial flights, connecting London and New York directly with Sydney for the first time. The London to Sydney route will start in October 2027.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Inside the new plane made for a 22-hour nonstop flight<\/p>\n

1:20<\/p>\n

Passports and border checks<\/p>\n

\n In 2006, a United States passport was the ultimate ticket to the world, offering its citizens a level of seamless global access matched only by two other nations: Denmark and Finland.\n <\/p>\n

\n What a difference 20 years makes. A new report comparing the travel freedoms of passports around the world in the 21st century shows that the status of the US passport<\/a> has been in slow decline, with 36 countries now ahead of it in the ranking.\n <\/p>\n

\"<strong>The<\/p>\n

World’s most powerful passports of July 2026<\/p>\n

\n The highest ranking passport in the European Union, according to the Henley Passport Index, is Sweden. The country\u2019s citizens can successfully bypass the EU\u2019s new Entry Exit System (EES), which means non-EU citizens arriving in the 29-country Schengen zone must now have their biometrics taken. The new system has led to border control bottlenecks in some airports, but it\u2019s just one of several tricky factors to navigate in what is a tough summer for European travel. (CNN subscribers can read the full story<\/a> here).\n <\/p>\n

\n There\u2019s one itty bitty European border that just got easier to cross, however. The physical border fence between the southern tip of Spain and the British territory of Gibraltar was removed earlier this month, under a historic treaty<\/a> between the EU and the UK.\n <\/p>\n

\n The contested British overseas territory of 38,000 people is perched at the tip of the Iberian Peninsula, in a strategic location just miles across the water from Morocco.\n <\/p>\n

Wilderness, wildlife and \u2018wow\u2019 factor<\/p>\n

\"<strong>By<\/p>\n

America’s Best Towns to Visit 2026: Juneau<\/p>\n

\n Continuing our countdown of America\u2019s Best Towns to Visit in 2026<\/a>, we have Juneau, Alaska, at No.7.\n <\/p>\n

\n Alaska\u2019s remote, hard-to-reach capital is the largest state capital in the nation by land mass and there sure is a lot to love. For starters, Juneau<\/a> is located in a rainforest, it has its own glacier and its residents include bears, mountain goats and whales.\n <\/p>\n

\n Of Juneau\u2019s more than 1.5 million annual visitors, more than 90% arrive by cruise ship. But there\u2019s plenty of room and activities for everyone, even during the busy summers.\n <\/p>\n

\n Take a look, too, at Roanoke, Virginia<\/a>, at No. 10, Lawrence, Kansas<\/a>, at No. 9 and Iowa City, Iowa<\/a> at No.8.\n <\/p>\n

\"119485_WXAPP_SpottedLake<\/p>\n

Canada’s Spotted Lake is a geological wonder\n <\/p>\n

This lake, located just outside of Osoyoos in British Columbia, has distinctive, colorful spots that are created by a combination of its chemistry, geology and climate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Canada’s Spotted Lake is a geological wonder<\/p>\n

1:35<\/p>\n

\n The geological wonder Spotted Lake<\/a>, or Lake Khiluk in the Nsyilxc\u0259n language, is located just outside Osoyoos, British Columbia. Its distinctive, colorful spots are created by a combination of chemistry, geology and climate.\n <\/p>\n

\n They felt a deep connection on a plane.\n <\/p>\n

\n A year later, he got back in touch in an unexpected way<\/a>. (For CNN subscribers only).\n <\/p>\n

\n Airline passengers hate middle seats<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n But that\u2019s not why United is getting rid of some of them.\n <\/p>\n

\n A tropical storm. A costly war. A blockbuster film.\n <\/p>\n

\n What do you remember from the week that was<\/a>?\n <\/p>\n

\n His restaurant put edible ants<\/a> on the menu.\n <\/p>\n

\n Now he could face one year in prison.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel\u2019s weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations, plus the latest in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-825249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}