Southwest says it plans to restore a normal flight schedule on Friday

Southwest Airlines, which has been caught in the middle of an annoying tangle of misplaced employees and technical problems since last week’s winter storm, said it plans to return to normal operations on Friday with “minimum disruptions.”

“We know even our deepest apologies – to our customers, our employees and everyone affected by this disruption – just go so far,” The company said in a statement.

more than 2,300 Southwest flights were canceled Thursday, or about 58 percent of flights that were scheduled for the day. The company’s collapse stranded thousands of travelers, stunned employees and put company executives on the defensive. It could also cause long-term damage to Southwest’s reputation.

As of Thursday afternoon, the airline had canceled just 39 flights scheduled for Friday, unlike previous days when thousands of flights were canceled a day ahead of schedule, according to FlightAware, Flight tracking service.

The airline has been promising to do everything we can and to work day and night to repair our relationship with you,” Ryan Green, Southwest’s chief commercial officer, said in a video statement late Wednesday.

He said, “My personal apologies are the first step to making things right after many changes of plans and experiences that did not live up to your expectations of us.”

The crash was triggered by a severe winter storm that disrupted every airline on the busy travel days before Christmas. But Southwest relied on a different organizational structure than most other airlines, which made it difficult to recover from disruptions, and it ran into technical problems in its complex scheduling system. (Read more about why and how the chaos happened.)

In an interview on “Good Morning America” ​​on Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said of Southwest, “We’re past the point where they can say this is a weather-driven issue.”

He added: “What this indicates is a failure in the system, and they need to make sure that those stranded passengers get where they need to go and that they are adequately compensated.”

And while officials scrambled to restore normal operations, customers stayed away from home frustrated by the lack of progress or the ability to contact customer service for help. Some have had to spend more than $1,000 for tickets on other airlines or to secure car rentals for road trips across the country. Barclay Cunningham, 51, said she had to borrow a car from her father on the 14-hour drive to Philadelphia from St. Louis and was not yet sure how to return it to him.

For Elsie Benitez and her husband, coming home at Christmas has been forbidden by a relentless series of missteps.

After arriving at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on December 24 to fly home to Orlando, they learn that their flight has been canceled due to a staff shortage. They were booked for a flight departing from Baltimore, about an hour’s drive away, for the next morning, Christmas Day.

When they arrived at Baltimore Airport, the flight was repeatedly delayed. After an eight hour delay, it was cancelled.

“We spent all Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at the airport,” said Ms. Benitez, 57, who works as a real estate agent. “What a nightmare.”

The couple got vouchers from Southwest to stay in a hotel that night, booked a rental car online from the Baltimore airport and planned to fly back to Orlando. But when they went to pick up the rental car, it wasn’t available. Eventually, Mrs. Benitez’s brother, whom they were visiting in Virginia, found a rental car there, picked them up from Baltimore, and dropped them off at the rental agency in Virginia.

Mrs. Benitez and her husband said they drove 12 hours back to Orlando and got home on Tuesday, finally opening their Christmas presents. She said Southwest “gave us vouchers, but that can’t make up for lost time, joy, or Christmas spirit.”