Wait times at airport security lanes across the country appeared to stabilise Tuesday in spite of high absenteeism by security officers left unpaid during the partial government shutdown and the continued closure of a checkpoint at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental. None of the nation’s busiest airports reported prolonged wait times above 25 minutes on Tuesday, in contrast to Monday when six airports exceeded those delays, according to the TSA’s most recent data. The absentee rate also fell slightly. TSA officers were absent at a rate of 6.1% Tuesday, almost twice as high as the rate on the same day a year ago, the agency said. On Monday, the rate was 6.8%. The security checkpoint and public areas where passengers get boarding passes in Houston’s Terminal B were shut Wednesday for the fourth day in a row, the airport said on its Twitter feed. The airport urged passengers to arrive early, but no flights were affected because passengers could access Terminal B gates through other airport entrances. The TSA’s struggles during the partial shutdown -- which has blocked funding for more than a dozen US departments and agencies -- have been among the most high profile. In recent days, the TSA was forced to close screening lanes at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson and Virginia’s Washington Dulles airports. Neither airport reported disruptions Wednesday.<br/>
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Shanghai Airlines, Hainan Airlines and China Southern Airlines are seeking rights to launch services to Europe. Hainan Airlines wants to launch a weekly Guiyang-Paris service from March, a route it had first sought to launch from January. China Southern is meanwhile seeking rights to a thrice-weekly Zhengzhou-London service from April, while Shanghai Airlines wants to launch four-times weekly services between Shanghai Pudong and Budapest in June. Separately, Qingdao Airlines has applied to commence services to Myanmar and Cambodia in April. These are twice-weekly services from Changsha to Yangon, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, as well as a weekly service between Changsha and Mandalay. Tianjin Airlines has also applied to start plying thrice-weekly between Tianjin and Ulaanbaatar from March.<br/>
Airbus expanded its industrial presence in the US on Wednesday, starting construction on a new assembly plant for the Canadian developed A220 jetliner, 18 months after agreeing to buy the plane in the midst of a US-Ottawa trade dispute. The European planemaker said it would invest $300m and create 400 jobs in the plant, to be built in the port of Mobile alongside an existing assembly line for its best-selling A320 passenger jet, which already employs 700 people. Alabama and the city of Mobile would provide a total of some $26m in state and municipal incentives to support the development, officials said. CE Tom Enders hailed a “day of pride” for Airbus at a ceremony peppered with patriotic US references and highlighting other investments in helicopters and satellites. There has been an increase in aerospace investment in the southeastern United States, where US rival Boeing has a plant assembling long-haul 787 Dreamliners in South Carolina. Airbus plans to use the Mobile site to assemble the 110-130-seat A220 for US airlines, which have ordered 250 of the planes including 135 since Airbus took control last July.<br/>