Spirit Airlines says cancelled flights have dropped sharply since a judge intervened in a dispute with the pilots' union over an alleged work slowdown. Spirit canceled 300 flights the first week of May and blamed pilots, who it said refused overtime flying to pressure the airline in contract negotiations. According to FlightAware, in the last three days through Thursday Spirit cancelled 12 flights. Airline spokesman Paul Berry said it appeared pilots were picking up extra flights. The Air Line Pilots Association says its members helped stabilize the airline's operation. Tens of thousands of passengers were stranded by cancellations this month. In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, irate passengers swarmed a Spirit ticket counter; three people were arrested. On May 9, a federal judge ordered the union not to interfere with Spirit's business.<br/>
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After several other airlines recently announced they were cutting back their flights to Cuba, Southwest, which began flights between Tampa and Havana late last year, is also watching how that new market is doing, said the airline’s CE. “We’re very carefully monitoring our developing markets; Cuba is something we’ll have to continue to watch,” Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said Wednesday. “Havana looks like a normal developing market, and the other two cities have very modest traffic demand at this point," he said. "So that’s something we’ll need to continue to watch. I don’t want to pull the plug yet, but the demand is going to have to pick up to sustain those flights.” Including Havana, Southwest has three destinations to Cuba. <br/>
A Ukraine International Airlines passenger plane drove through wet concrete while taxiing after landing at a regional airport, the airline said in a statement on Thursday, accusing the airport authority of failing to warn them of the hazard. A senior official at Zaporizhia airport disputed the airline's statement. No passengers on the Boeing aircraft were hurt but the concrete seriously damaged the fuselage and landing gear, the airline said, adding that it was providing alternative means of transport for passengers scheduled on later flights. The airline said that the airport had been carrying out repair work on the runway from March to May 10. But it had given the airline the all clear to fly from May 18. "The official position of the airport is that the aircraft did not go onto wet concrete," said Ihor Bazanov, deputy director of the Zaporizhia airport, adding that the plane was not damaged. <br/>