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Singapore Airlines has announced a review of its international flights to and from Canberra, but the company insists it remains committed to the region. The airline's Singapore to Canberra to Wellington rotation has run four times a week since the first flight touched down in Canberra on September 21 last year. Federal government figures show passengers getting on and off the Singapore Airline flights in Canberra have been filling about half the available seats to and from Singapore and 25% to and from Wellington. However, December figures show on average 37% of the 266 seats from Singapore to Canberra were occupied by people travelling to the national capital. Other seats were filled by passengers travelling straight through from Singapore to Wellington. Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the ACT Government had expected to share in the economic benefit of the flights when lobbying for the route. "The Wellington connection is important for the economics of the service, there's no doubting that," he said. "Those New Zealand passengers who transit through Canberra certainly assist in filling a plane that size. But from our perspective, sitting in the middle of the route, we get a direct to Wellington and a direct service to Singapore." Singapore Airlines spokesman Karl Schubert said the routes had produced "encouraging" growth. Canberra Airport CEO Stephen Byron said the results were beyond expectations. "The passenger numbers are tracking above our projections," he said.<br/>

A frenzied passenger attempted to enter the cockpit of a Beijing-bound aircraft on Saturday before being subdued by a Chinese passenger and the flight captain. The incident took place on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Beijing. There were more than 200 passengers on the flight. The male passenger attempted to break open the cockpit door by running into it and kicking it. Although the man’s identity was not revealed, the report said he was about 6 feet tall and screamed in both Chinese and English when he made his run at the cockpit door. After two flight attendants and two passengers failed to stop him, Cao Guoxiong, a Chinese passenger who is a bodybuilder, wrestled the man to the floor. The flight captain, after reassuring the other pilots in the cockpit, then came out and helped hold down the man. The scuffle lasted for about 20 minutes before the captain managed to tie the hysterical man’s arms behind his back. The man almost broke loose multiple times, so Cao collected headphone cables from other passengers and further trussed up the man.<br/>The plane was diverted to the Allama Lqbal International Airport in Pakistan where the man was arrested by police. The report said the man was recently fired from his job, but it did not give a source. Feeling suicidal, the report said, he had attempted to hijack the plane and crash it. The plane safely landed in Beijing almost five hours later than scheduled at around 11pm on Saturday. <br/>