The resolve of Spirit Airlines (SAVE  ) is being tested as the company struggles to keep pace amid a wave of cancellations.

The cascade of cancellations began on Sunday, with the company being forced to cancel hundreds of flights each day, with upwards of half of all flights being canceled on some days. By Friday, some 1,700 flights have been canceled, leaving thousands of commuters stranded throughout the country.

According to Spirit CEO Ted Christie, the days-long cancellation streak comes from a myriad of factors, from inclimate weather to staffing shortages.

"We couldn't get in front of it," Christie said. "This one caught us where we didn't want to be. We're going to learn from this and figure out ways to make that better going forward."

Typical seasonal disruptions such as summer storms have been exacerbated by climate change, causing increasingly severe storm systems to sweep the country, causing mass delays across many major carriers. The sudden surge of travel demand, caused by the relaxing of pandemic restrictions throughout the summer, has coincided with said delays and a shortage of work-ready crews to run routes.

Spirit's many woes are shared by some of its contemporaries, such as American Airlines (AAL  ), which has suffered weather and staffing-related disruptions to its routes. While American has since managed to stabilize its operations, there doesn't seem to be much indication as to how far along Spirit has come in rectifying its own breakdowns.

Spirit hopes to learn from the breakdown, with Christie commenting, "We are going to do everything we can to earn back the confidence of our guests and the traveling public. We believe we can do that," adding that the airline would offer refunds to customers.

Spirit shares have spent much of the week on a rollercoaster ride, understandably. While the firm's price has spent much of the week fluctuating, it seemed to be settling into a downward trend as markets prepared to close for the week. Spirit shares were down 4.7% for the week an hour before market close on Friday.