The skies may have finally reopened but the backlog continues. Why weren't the airlines more prepared to handle the disaster in an era of terror attacks and swine flu? Why were the stranded travellers more organised than big business?

If social media had been around in the 1980s, the film Planes, Trains and Automobiles would never have been made. It wouldn’t have been nearly as funny if Steve Martin and John Candy could have just Tweeted their location, found a car pool in their area and been home before supper. The wonder of social media! Not only can you keep up with your friends and check out that restaurant before you book, but it can also help you get home after a major natural disaster.

Following the devastating effect of the volcanic ash on our tiny nation’s airspace, thousands of travellers have been left stranded with airlines and travel agencies unable to cope with such an unprecedented event. But all is not lost! Our caped crusader appears on the horizon… it’s Twitterman and its trusty hastag!

Of course, it’s not just Twitter that’s been pivotal in helping repatriate Brits spread far and wide, Facebook has also got involved. A car-pool Facebook group called “Carpool Europe” has been set up in response to the situation has already gained around 3,500 fans and thousands of messages have been posted.

They range from community friendly to other travellers making the most of their bind:

Free rides available from London to Madrid with private cars. Sign in at: http://www.bustohome.info/

AirportTaxiNL: Still stuck in Amsterdam?! I’m willing to use my car to take max 4 people anywhere in Europe for only 1 euro/km. #getmehome #roadsharing    

And:

We have bought a cheap car and are driving it to the UK. If anyone is stuck in the UK and needs to buy it off us we could sell it to you around Heathrow/Dover. We bought the car for 600 Euros - works out cheap enough when shared by 4 people. Tel *****

Twitter’s ashtag, ahem, I mean hashtag, #getmehome has helped group together hundreds. There’s also #putmeup, which is being used by those both looking for and offering accommodation. No wonder there have been so many wartime analogies; if you take a look at the social media sites it does feel like we’re all pulling together with stiff upper-lip camaraderie.

@milanlady: #getmehome #putmeup cheap rooms and assistance available in Milan for stranded travellers!

@blimpfrog driving up through France, we’ll be in Calais by Monday evening room for two in our car. DM me if you need a ride

Contrast this with the amount of information – nevermind actual help – and it is looks as though stranded travellers are learning more from their peers than from the professionals. The responses from even the big international airliners have been unhelpful, impersonal, unsympathetic and read like a corporate script. Where are the lessons that could have been learned from the Eurotunnel mess a couple of years ago? Will the lessons be learned this time?

These airlines have websites and mailing lists but no disaster planning. Why aren’t they prepared for such events (albeit unprecedented ones) and updating their sites regularly? How is it that one person find a way around the problem and the major airlines can't? Virgin, for example, made it difficult for passengers to even find information on their website and then offered information that was out of date. Myself and several of my colleagues were set to travel out to San Francisco on Saturday and, suffice to say, it didn’t happen. But what was more frustrating was the lack of customer service we received. Why couldn’t Virgin compete with Twitter when it came to giving us the information we looked for? Why weren’t they capturing the conversation? These are simple tools and widgets to embed within your website. And, with customers are being driven to their sites in droves, what a great opportunity not to only appease the masses, but also stand out from the crowd.

Rachel Clark, head of social media at digital agency Twentysix, advises several things that brands must prepare before the ash hits the fan:

• Make sure your sites are ready for an unusual load
• Make sure you are capable of broadcasting messages through multiple channels, not just press releases on your site. The customers are using social media, so must you to connect directly with them.
• Be aware of the trends and connections that are arising with your customers, the tags and the sites that are important. Be nimble enough to be able to interact there as well – it gets your message out.
• Make sure you respond as well as broadcast. It may not be possible to do it all individually, but acknowledge you are listening.

Social media has stepped in to fill the void in this market. It’s the people on the ground who know the real scenario. But it begs the question: why do your customers know more about what’s going on than you do?

Catherine Thurtle is the editor of iMedia UK