Copenhagen - A small fortune in coins has proved worthless for the Danish branch of joint Scandinavian airline SAS, reports said Tuesday. SAS Denmark has an estimated 750 million kroner (137 million dollars) in various coins but the carrier has been unable to find a bank where it can cash in the coins - the banks cite high costs for sorting and counting the coins.
To tackle the problem, SAS Denmark has decided that passengers who buy coffee or snacks on board have to pay with 5 krone-coins or 1 euro-coins rather than small change, the online edition of the Jyllands-Posten reported.
"We are trying to find a bank that will accept the coins so that we can get something for them," SAS Denmark spokesman Jens Langergaard told the newspaper.
Between March and end of June, SAS Denmark collected some 250 kilos in coins and the carrier would prefer passengers to use credit cards.
SAS Norway and SAS Sweden have not introduced similar rules.
The governments of Norway, Sweden and Denmark together own a 50- per-cent stake in SAS, while private shareholders hold the rest.
