Ryanair is abandoning the questionnaire check of South African passengers' knowledge of the Afrikaans language upon delivery of the planes, as the procedure has received several criticisms, including from the South African government, several news agencies reported it following the online edition of the Irish Examiner.
The background to the case is that critics of Ryanair called the European airline racist because of the "colonial" flight test. The South African government last week expressed its "shock" at the airline's move to subject travelers to Britain with South African passports to a language test. In a statement, the government called the procedure a "reverse profiling method".
According to the information provided by the Washington Post, the well-known South African actress went even further.
Lesley-Ann Brandt described Ryanair's procedure as a deplorable racist move.
Linguist professor Andries W. Coetzee, director of the Center for African Studies at the University of Michigan, said Afrikaans speakers are closely tied to South Africa's colonial history and the apartheid regime that institutionalized white supremacy.
Ryanair is defending itself by dramatically changing its previous controversial policy of using the apartheid-era language to test whether passengers are South African. The airline's controversial chief executive, Michael O'Leary, said the decision was "not appropriate at all" and that it "doesn't really make sense". Afrikaans is the third most spoken language in South Africa after Zulu and Xhosa.
Although many South Africans learn the language in school, its use is often associated with the discriminatory and exclusionary policies of the apartheid era.
In response, O'Leary - otherwise true to form - called the South African government's criticism of the questionnaire "garbage".
The consequences are not yet predictable in relation to Ryanair's CEO involved in the racist scandal. In addition to the harsh criticism, several people are already demanding his resignation, not the first time, but the last time he clashed with pilots. He called the Hungarian government's measure related to the extra-profit tax idiocy and said that the passengers will bear the brunt of it.
Because he stands up for the interests of the Hungarian people! Thank you, let them operate legally and pay their taxes like the others.
Source: 888.hu
Featured image: euronews
2022plus: In the meantime, Ryanair continues its attack on the Hungarian nation! Pesti Guys: According to Ryanair's press department, the claim that Hungarians are canceling their trips en masse is a lie. "The claims of the Hungarian Nation are false and clearly made up," Ryanair's press department said in response to a question from 24.hu. Referring to its reports, the newspaper wrote: "the majority of travelers reject the fact that the airlines transfer the tax payable on their extra profits to their customers one-on-one in the ticket prices."
However, Ryanair indicated in its response to 24.hu that after July 1, less than 3 percent of passengers traveling with Ryanair used the option to cancel their tickets with a refund of the original price. At the same time, they added that the canceled seats will now be available for Hungarians to buy again.
97 percent decided to pay Márton Nagy's idiotic extra profit tax imposed on unprofitable airlines
- said the company in its response. They then stated:
Minister Nagy must now apologize to those Hungarian families who have to pay higher prices because of the "idiotic additional tax".
By the way, the use of words is nothing new on the part of Ryanair, as the CEO of the airline previously ridiculed the minister in an interview.
