Southwest plans to return to “normal operations” on Friday, the company said in a statement.

The beleaguered Southwest Airlines plans to return to normal operations on Friday with minimal disruption, the company said in a statement.

“While Southwest continues to operate approximately one-third of its schedule for Thursday, December 29, we plan to return to normal operations with minimal disruption on Friday, December 30,” the statement said.

“We are encouraged by the progress we have made in reorganizing crews, their schedules and our fleet. As we head into another holiday weekend full of important contacts for our valued customers and employees, we are committed to getting back to normal.”

The company also apologized to its customers and employees.

“We know that even our deepest apologies – to our customers, our employees and everyone affected by this outage – have gone so far.”

The airline said it would only fly on a third of its schedule during the busy days after Christmas. Thousands of flights have been canceled this week, disappointing customers who have had to scramble to find new flights and alternative forms of travel.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday his department will look into Southwest Airlines’ scheduling system after thousands of canceled flights angered passengers across the country.

Southwest canceled 70% of its flight schedule on Monday and Tuesday.

Southwest canceled more than 2,500 flights on Wednesday – 61% of its flights – according to flight-tracking website FlightAware. The airline on Thursday canceled more than 2,300 flights, representing 58% of its schedule.

“This has clearly crossed the line from an uncontrollable weather situation to something that is the direct responsibility of the airline,” Buttigieg said Tuesday in an interview with NBC Nightly News.

Buttigieg said Southwest had promised to take care of affected customers and that the Department of Transportation would be the airline’s responsibility.