Southwest flyers may see relief on Friday as cancellations ebb

Southwest Airlines Co. has canceled just over three dozen flights for Friday, suggesting the beleaguered carrier may be close to resuming relatively normal operations after a meltdown stranded thousands of passengers.

Friday’s tally of 39 canceled flights has been consistent for the past day, 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 2,356 flights on Thursday, or about 58% of its total schedule.

The airline said this week that it would run only one-third of its flights for several days while it recovered from disruption caused by winter storms and outdated scheduling technology.

Shares of Southwest rose 0.3% in premarket trading at 7:24 a.m. in New York. The stock had slumped 11% over the prior two days.