Ryanair drops controversial language test

Dublin-based airline Ryanair announced the scrapping of its controversial Afrikaans language test for South African passengers.

The test was introduced as a way to identify passengers with counterfeit passports travelling to the UK.

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary announced the decision to drop the test on Tuesday.

Ryanair doesn't fly to or from South Africa but is Europe's biggest airline, carrying millions of passengers between hundreds of cities every year.

Reports of the questionnaire circulating on social media sparked anger among many South Africans.

Afrikaans is one of South Africa’s 11 official languages and is the first language of about 13% of the country’s population of nearly 60 million.

It is also associated with South Africa’s apartheid regime of white minority rule that ended in 1994.