As Southwest continues to try and recover from a wave of cancellations that caused travel headaches nationwide, the Dallas-based airline cancelled more than 2,300 flights on Thursday, according to flight tracker FlightAware.

But in a sign of possible progress, the carrier said that it expects to return to normal operations on Friday.

"We plan to return to normal operations with minimal disruptions on Friday, Dec. 30," the company said in a statement on Thursday.

"We are encouraged by the progress we've made to realign Crew, their schedules, and our fleet," they added. "With another holiday weekend full of important connections for our valued Customers and Employees, we are eager to return to a state of normalcy."

"We know even our deepest apologies – to our Customers, to our Employees, and to all affected through this disruption – only go so far," the statement continues, adding: "We have much work ahead of us, including investing in new solutions to manage wide-scale disruptions. We aim to serve our Customers and Employees with our legendary levels of Southwest Hospitality and reliability again very soon."

The vast majority of flights canceled nationwide Thursday are from Southwest, per FlightAware; the 2,363 cancelled flights as of Thursday afternoon accounted for 58% of its entire schedule, in addition to 116 delays. The flight tracker shows a total of 4,126 delays, including 2,478 within, into or out of the United States on Thursday.

All told, on Thursday, Southwest accounted for more than 95% of all canceled flights in the United States.

Southwest is struggling to recover after being overwhelmed by a winter storm that left hundreds of pilots and flight attendants stranded out of position to operate flights.

Other airlines are back to full strength. Delta, American and United together canceled around 30 flights by late morning, per FlightAware.

In a statement to Spectrum News, a spokesperson for Southwest said that the carrier is continuing to operate on a “reduced schedule by flying roughly one third of our schedule through Thursday, as of now.”

“The Southwest Team is working to accommodate Customers on available flights as soon as possible, and we apologize for the inconvenience to our Customers,” they added.

In a video message posted Wednesday night, Ryan Green, the airline’s chief commercial officer, issued an apology to everyone impacted and offered a pledge “to do everything we can and to work day and night to repair our relationship with you.”

The mass cancellations, which began after last week’s devastating winter storm, have left passengers stranded or delayed, with a portion unable to find their luggage. 

Southwest has acknowledged it has inadequate and outdated operations technology that can leave flight crews out of position when adverse weather strikes. Southwest was the only airline unable to recover from storm-related delays that began over the weekend when snow, ice and high winds raked portions of the country.

“You know by now all the flexibility and planning that we put in place to deal with the storm just wasn't enough,” Green admitted.

But in an interview with ABC News, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that “we are past the point where they could say that this is a weather-driven issue.”

“What this indicates is a system failure, and they need to make sure that these stranded passengers get to where they need to go and that they are provided adequate compensation,” Buttigieg told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.

When asked on if he thinks the Southwest travel issues constitute a “meltdown,” Buttigieg agreed: “That word gets thrown around a lot sometimes in coverage of travel disruptions, but in this case, it’s the only word I can think of to describe what’s happening at Southwest Airlines.”

Buttigieg said earlier this week that his Transportation Department would be looking into the cancellations. In a statement to Spectrum News earlier this week, a spokesperson for the the department called the rate of cancellations and delays “unacceptable and dramatically higher than other U.S. carriers.” 

Per the statement, Buttigieg spoke to Southwest CEO Bob Jordan and “conveyed that he expects the airline to live up to the commitments it has made to passengers, including providing meal vouchers, refunds, and hotel accommodations for those experiencing significant delays or cancelations that came about as a result of Southwest's decisions and actions.”

“The Department will take action to hold Southwest accountable if it fails to fulfill its obligations and we will stay engaged with Southwest Airlines to make sure the airline does not allow a situation like this to happen again,” they added.

The airline says that it is working to fix the issues, including standing up a resource to assist customers with reuniting with their bags, as well as creating a website to contact the airline to rebook or request a refund. A systemwide travel advisory is also in effect to “help accommodate Customers who experience a disruption in service,” the airline says, in order to “offer Customers maximum flexibility with rebooking.”

“My personal apology is the first step of making things right after many plans changed, and experiences fell short of your expectations of us,” Green said. “We’re continuing to work to make this up to you, and you'll hear more about that soon. But for now, we're focused on restoring the reliability and level of customer experience we expect of ourselves and that you expect from us.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.