Originally Posted by
ATLintheair
A lot needs to be figured out, but one problem all the airlines face in these mass cancellation scenarios is that their displaced or needed crew members, cabin and flight deck, still need operational flights to be in service in order to deadhead. If everything is cancelled how do you relocate your crews? In this case it will possibly also require displacing paying passengers, who will, of course, not be pleased at that. Duty time limits also come into play in many cases as well, as in the crew arrived but now they can’t work until a rest period. It’s all intertwined and can be quite messy.
It's a bit surprising they haven't come up with creative ways to address this. Maybe they have and we just don't know it, or maybe that's the "juniority benefit" coming home to roost. For example, during ATL Snowmageddon in 2014 they parked widebodies at gates with the door open and the employees used the Business Elite (now D1) seats to rest. This addressed staffing issues with people not being able to get to or from the airport. Another time, I remember them flying a full 767 from ATL to JFK with only crews in order to help the east coast recover from a winter storm. The issue now is the problem is distributed globally.