Qantas has hired four full-time social media managers to keep tabs on what people are saying about the airline on Twitter and Facebook.

The airline has set up a dedicated social media unit to trawl through tweets and status updates around the clock.

Qantas spokesman Tom Woodward said the strategy had been fast-tracked after last year's mid-air engine explosion over Singapore which highlighted the need to "increase social media resources quickly".

The pilot who landed the A380 said that, within moments of the blast, inaccurate reports a Qantas plane had crashed were tweeted worldwide.

"About five minutes after the engine exploded, we were being told by Singapore Air Traffic Control that there were parts of the engine being found on the ground in Indonesia," Capt Richard Champion de Crespigny told the Australian Airports Association convention yesterday.

"I don't know how Air Traffic Control found that out. It may've been from Air Traffic Control in Indonesia or it may've been Twitter."

The tweets went viral with relatives of Qantas employees even sending their condolences to chief executive Alan Joyce.

"I think it was the first time that tweets moved so rapidly around the world in response to an unconfirmed event," Capt de Crespigny said.

Queensland's Department of Community Safety is currently advertising five full-time positions for its social media team, the Queensland Police Service has three casual social media managers and Queensland Rail one full-time person working on Twitter and Facebook.

In other moves to try to make up for the bad PR after the fleet was grounded, Qantas is giving away additional points to its most regular flyers.

Platinum and Platinum One members will get double the points than usual on new and existing bookings from today until December 23.

Gold members will get 50 percent more points and Silver and Bronze 25 percent over the same time period.

Qantas Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce said: "We deeply regret the impact on our Frequent Flyers of the recent industrial action and grounding of the Qantas fleet.

"However, our customers can now book Qantas flights with confidence and certainty."