Bear in mind that many air passengers will chose the cheapest fare options, regardless of the competence of the operators to provide a safe service (and fatigued pilots are, of course, less competent than non-fatigued pilots when we define 'fatigue' as 'debilitating tiredness'). It's a form of negative lottery: 'We only paid £30 and the chances of us getting to destination are very very good.' Air transport has, in a way, become a victim of its own success in achieving very high standards of safety. Passengers assume – with statistical justification – that their chances of being an air accident victim are vanishingly small. It is unlikely that this point of view can be changed unless a series of serious accidents were shown to be the result of fatigue-induced crew error.
You can predict the response of whichever politician is lumbered with the damage limitation
PR exercise after a fatigue-related prang. It's answer #12 in the Government
PR Media Briefing Document:
'Our thoughts are with the families of the victims. We will hold a full and thorough enquiry to find out the causes of this terrible accident and take action to make sure it never happens again.'