Australia’s safety regulator will have access to safety information from hundreds of airlines after signing a deal with the International Air Transport Association.

The deal will give the Civil Aviation Safety Authority access to the audit details of more than 400 carriers on the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) and makes Australia the first country in the Asia-Pacific to use the audit as part of its safety oversight.

CASA already has access to information from the US Federal Aviation Administration and European Aviation Safety Agency authorities but this will be the first time it will also be able to get details from IOSA audits.

The Australian regulator says it expects the additional information to make its surveillance and audits more efficient and effective.

IOSA is compulsory for IATA members but non-members also sign up for it on a voluntary basis.

Introduced to help reduce the rate of airline fatal accidents, it is an internationally nationally recognised audit that looks at operational management and control systems at an airline.

Carriers taking part in the audit tend to have a better overall safety record than those that don’t.  IATA says the total accident rate for IOSA carriers between 2011 and 2015 was 3.3 times lower than the rate for non-IOSA operators.

Acting CASA aviation safety director Graeme Crawford said CASA would use the IOSA information to complement the existing surveillance and oversight of foreign airlines.

Crawford said CASA had worked closely with IATA to understand the organisation’s audit process, quality assurance and management of approved auditors.

“It will also be used as part of the assessment process for new foreign carriers seeking authorisation to operate to Australia,’’ Crawford said in the latest CASA Briefing newsletter.

 “In the future, we expect to have access to IOSA information in relation to Australian carriers, which will be used to support our existing audit and surveillance work.’’

IATA senior vice president safety and flight operation Gilberto Lopez-Meyer said sharing IOSA information with regulators reduced the burden and costs of safety oversight.

Other agreements to share IOSA information are in place with the FAA, EASA and China.