Ryanair drops Afrikaans test that angered South Africans

LONDON (AP) — Budget airline Ryanair says it has scrapped its controversial Afrikaans language test for South African travelers aimed at weeding out people with phony passports. The Dublin-based airline changed its policy of requiring South African travelers to the U.K. to pass the quiz after the furor erupted earlier this month. Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary told a press conference in Brussels Tuesday that the test was being dropped. The airline’s press office confirmed his remarks. Ryanair doesn’t fly to or from South Africa but is Europe’s biggest airline, carrying millions of passengers between hundreds of cities annually. Afrikaans is one of South Africa’s 11 official languages and associated with the apartheid regime of white minority rule that ended in 1994.