Congress is starting to ask how, exactly, the airline companies have used the $50 billion in pandemic relief funding the taxpayers gave them over the past two years to ensure smooth operation — given that smooth operation is the opposite of what some carriers have been providing lately.

The airlines were hit especially hard by the pandemic, as it decimated daily travel numbers and necessitated cutting back flights. The airlines shed tens of thousands of employees last year mainly through voluntary furloughs and early retirement incentives. Those were necessary moves to weather the coronavirus storm.

But the chaos surrounding Southwest and American Airlines flights last month was nonetheless a shock. A few isolated weather events caused canceled flights in Texas and Florida, but then the cancellations rippled throughout the country and into the following week. The main problem appears to be that the companies were still too short-staffed from their pandemic cuts last year to quickly adjust to the changed schedules.

Some in Congress want to know why, with that $50 billion lifeline over the past 18 months, the airlines are apparently having such a hard time ramping back up as the pandemic eases. The airlines say they are the victims of pandemic chaos like everyone else.

Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia delegate in Congress, wants hearings to examine the question of whether that funding, instead of benefiting the flying public, mainly benefited the shareholders.

In the Senate, plans for such hearings next month are already underway. The airlines will have the chance to make their case — but the best way they could make it is to ensure the holiday travel season avoids more of this kind of turbulence.