There really isn't any good populist answer for what they should do.
If they leave prices low, than there wouldn't be any available seats at all. For anyone, till the end of bookings. And they'd still be getting killed for not having any seats for the tech boys, or true emergencies.
If they raise prices so that they discourage non essential travel, and to ration the available seats to people who truly NEED to travel, then they get accused of profiteering...
The alternative options are really the purview of the ministry of transportation to arrange.