THE Civil Aviation Safety Authority has tightened requirements for foreign carriers seeking to operate to Australia, in an attempt to better detect potential safety problems.
The move comes as this month's crash in Thailand has rekindled debate about the safety of fast-growing airlines in Southeast Asia.
All airlines wanting to fly to Australia are required to apply for a foreign air operator's certificate and show that they meet certain safety requirements.
More recently, applicants have included several Asian low-cost carriers wanting to service Australia, including Malaysia's AirAsiaX, Singapore's Tiger Airways and Viva Macau.
Although the process is still reliant on assessments by foreign regulators, CASA says it is more rigorous than in the past.
CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said this meant the Australian regulator was looking more closely at applicants.
"We've been looking at the whole process of assessing foreign AOCs over recent years, and it's more rigorous than ever before," CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said.
"There is more work going on in that area and they are looking at other things they can do."
Mr Gibson said the International Civil Aviation organisation was also putting more emphasis on its audit program and making it transparent to member states.
The International Air Transport Association was also running an audit program for member airlines.
"There are a whole lot of things going on to make sure that standards don't slip as growth drives ahead," Mr Gibson said.
This week's fatal crash involving a McDonnell Douglas 82 aircraft in Thailand has been attributed, in various reports, to a combination of bad weather and possible pilot error. Eighty-nine people died when the jet operated by Thai low-cost carrier One-Two-Go crashed on Sunday morning at Phuket Airport in a wild storm.
It emerged after the crash that South Korean and Japanese authorities had raised safety concerns about One-Two-Go's parent company, Orient Thai.
Indonesian airlines also came under the spotlight earlier this year after a Garuda crash in which five Australians died.
The crash has also raised questions about pilot training, although the plane's captain was an experienced pilot who had served in the Indonesian air force.
One-Two-Go chief executive Kajit Hapananont this week defended 56-year-old pilot Arief Mulyadi and lashed out at presumptions of pilot error.
Thai air safety officials have said it could be two weeks before conclusions could be drawn from the plane's black boxes, which have been sent to the US for analysis.
