How will hiring more crews and gates be cheaper than one flight getting abnormally delayed? I mean maybe it will be cheaper, but there is no surety about it.

You said there was always a line of planes. All those planes were delayed, weren't they?

This is even before we factor in all the time lost by passengers of these planes, after which it would be a no-brainer.

You misunderstand. It's not normal to only have one ground crew, this was a very unusual situation. My guess is a bunch of people called in due to the impending weather, or the airport expected to be shut down sooner than they were.

Like I said, this was an edge case. I've flown once a month for almost three years now and this was the first time I've experienced this.