Southwest Airlines Co. plans to return to a normal schedule Friday after a weeklong meltdown stranded thousands of passengers.

The airline said on its website that it expects “normal operations with minimal disruptions” on Friday. The carrier has been operating a significantly reduced schedule for several days while it recovered from disruption caused by winter storms and overwhelmed scheduling technology.

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“With another holiday weekend full of important connections for our valued customers and employees, we are eager to return to a state of normalcy,” the company said.

The airline has canceled just 39 flights for Friday, according to flight tracker FlightAware.com. The website so far lists no Southwest flights that have been delayed or canceled for Saturday. By contrast, the airline canceled 2,364 flights on Thursday, or about 58 per cent of its total schedule, on top of more than 2,500 flights on Wednesday.

Shares of Southwest rose as much as 4.1 per cent in New York. The stock had slumped 11 per cent over the prior two days.