I have followed Asian civil aviation for several years.
The problems they face are:
1. underfunded startup airlines (Indonesia, India)
2. energetic and not well-understood equatorial Pacific storms
3. uneven quality of candidates and training
4. Asian cultural issues in the cockpit, esp. S. Korea
5. demanding weather (monsoons) and terrain (low-viz)
The NTSB did a lot (well, everything) for the current safety of American airlines, but there's no comparable safety body in Asia.
So Asian airline safety should really be compared with Africa, not the West.
Re: "Asian cultural issues" and the tired old Malcolm Gladwell line about South Korean culture being unsuited to the cockpit, this post demolishes that pretty thoroughly.
The problems they face are:
1. underfunded startup airlines (Indonesia, India) 2. energetic and not well-understood equatorial Pacific storms 3. uneven quality of candidates and training 4. Asian cultural issues in the cockpit, esp. S. Korea 5. demanding weather (monsoons) and terrain (low-viz)
The NTSB did a lot (well, everything) for the current safety of American airlines, but there's no comparable safety body in Asia.
So Asian airline safety should really be compared with Africa, not the West.