Southwest Expects Friday Recovery From ‘Meltdown’

Southwest Airlines has told its employees to expect almost all its regular flights to operate on Friday. The memo came after the shellshocked airline canceled two-thirds of its schedule for Thursday and brought its total of cancellations since Dec. 22 to 15,700. To put that in perspective, the 2,350 flights it's canceling on Thursday account for 99 percent of total cancellations so far planned in the U.S. "We're optimistic to be back on track before next week," CEO Bob Jordan told CNN.

Jordan has repeatedly apologized for the mess that started with cold and snow in the East and was complicated by staff issues in Denver. The network reported that Southwest invoked an operational emergency in Denver after getting a rash of sick and personal day calls on Dec. 21. The company required those calling in sick to have notes from doctors. Meanwhile, spokesman Chris Perry told CNN staff are working hard to get mountains of baggage sorted and planes and flight crews back where they belong. "We have not had staffing issues at any station across our operation and commend our People for the valiant work they are doing," Perry said.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN he's looking for assurances from the airline that the issues that led to the holiday "meltdown" will be fixed and that affected passengers will be compensated. "I made clear that our department will be holding them accountable for their responsibilities to customers, both to get them through this situation and to make sure that this can't happen again," the Secretary said.