Creampuff:
Fare paying passengers stepping on to any aircraft make the reasonable assumption that the standards applicable to the operation are the same, whatever they are stepping on to and wherever they are going. Most fare paying passengers wouldn’t have a clue about whether they are stepping on to a charter aircraft or an RPT aircraft, and most passengers wouldn’t know that different standards could apply, depending on the classification of the operation and the size of the aircraft. Most fare paying passengers would be surprised, if not alarmed, if they knew about the distinction and its implications.
What a vicious attack on charter operators. You are implying that they operate to lower safety standards that RPT operators.
It appears, unless I'm mistaken, that CASA has decided on a "one size fits all" approach to the regulation of commercial passenger carrying activities. In other words, small operators are expected to replicate in miniature, all the systems and procedures applicable to a Qantas, Rex, etc. If that is the intent, it is lunacy. Thank God I'm not involved commercially in the aviation industry.
If this is true, then it appears that CASA has caught the same creeping occupational health and safety cancer that is slowly crippling our economy. That is a confusion between the existence of formal bureaucratic safety systems and actual safety.
Numerous examples can be provided on request. What is lacking is any consideration of economic effect - a subject that is normally part of a risk management approach.