How important is Social Media in the year 2011? You be the judge. According to a recent industry report, more airlines now have Twitter accounts than do loyalty programs.

As of July 2011, there were a total of 191 airlines on Twitter, while only 179 carriers offered loyalty programs. The idea of loyalty programs came about more than 30 years ago when American Airlines first introduced the AAdvantage Program to its frequent fliers.

Airlines burst onto the Twitter scene back in 2007 and seem to be tweeting now more than ever. The number of airline tweets increased 51% between March 2011 and July 2011, according to the report.

Most use the social media platform to advertise cheap flights and respond to customer service inquiries.

The biggest Twitter fans in the industry? Delta and JetBlue. Delta was the first airline to create a Twitter account while @JetBlue now has over 1.5 million followers.

Source: Travel Daily News