After a particular airport has been out of operation for week, how in the world do the airlines take care of the backlog? I can think of 3 ways the backlog reduces itself:

1) natural attrition -- some people cancel travel plans, or already used alternate arrangements, or die, or whatever

2) airline fills up existing flights once ops resume (100% capacity)

3) additional flights to get the airline above 100% capacity


In a case where 1/2 a continent has nobody going to or from, I don't see how these 3 factors will reduce the backlog in any meaningful "near future". How in the world do the airlines move a million people who already should have been somewhere? I just don't see how they would have the crew (most important) or equipment (maybe they have idle planes, more likely than idle crew) to do it.

So how is it done?