From a political perspective you're right. This is good for airlines. They get to be a victim here of dysfunctional Government and working to help out even though its likely means losing money overall for some airlines. The costs of canceling flights and having to give up that revenue when most of the costs (other than fuel) are fixed, means that almost no airline, even Spirit, is doing better financially because they canceled a flight. Pilots are still being paid, FAs, the next lease payment, etc but the revenue goes away.