Supply and Demand.
Free Enterprise.
The Market System.
Folk who don’t like the concepts above like to use the term “price gouging” instead.
As a Conservative, I do not use the term “price gouging”.
Given that due to security regulations it’s no longer possible to resell a personally unused ticket (though the airline might refund part or all of it) it’s not like hoarding tickets would happen. So it’s a little different than passing out so many bottles of water. All the seats will get used by people who need them (who is going to joyride in such a situation?), and a lottery might make sense for public relations purposes. People liken capitalism to gravity as equally inexorable forces, and it’s true insofar as it goes, but we also note that gravity does not mean we are condemned to do nothing but lie upon the ground all our lives.
There is a big difference between day to day situations and a natural disaster. If someone was willing to pay $4,000 for a plane ticket on a normal day, that's up to them. But when the airline "price gouges" to take advantage of people in a desparate situation - that's immoral in my view.