American Airlines fined $1.6M for delays

American Airlines Group Inc. was ordered to pay $1.6 million in penalties and fines to settle charges it trapped passengers on 27 flights that were delayed for more than three hours on the ground.

The penalties equal the previous record for violations of tarmac-delay regulations that Southwest Airlines Co. paid after reaching an agreement with the Department of Transportation in January 2015.

American’s fine was reduced by $602,000 for compensation it has already paid passengers on the flights, according to a recent agency press release. DOT also agreed to waive $303,000 of the fine to reimburse the airline for better equipment to help avoid such problems in the future, the agency said in the release.

“Our tarmac rule is meant to prevent passengers from being trapped in aircraft on the ground for hours on end,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in the release. “We will continue to take enforcement action as necessary to ensure passengers are not kept delayed on the tarmac for lengthy periods of time.”

The fines were accrued over flights by American and merger partner US Airways, as well as regional carriers flying for them.

‘Mario’ no longer top-grossing app

The initial excitement surrounding Nintendo Co.’s debut mobile game, “Super Mario Run,” appears to wearing off.

The title, released Dec. 15 for Apple Inc. devices, was no longer the highest-grossing iOS app in any country as of Dec. 24, according to the latest data available from researcher App Annie. A week earlier it was the most profitable app in 49 nations. In terms of free downloads, it was still on top in 88 countries, down from a peak of 138 on Dec. 17.

The drop in rankings might reflect problems with the app’s price: “Super Mario Run” can be downloaded for free, but users have to pay $10 if they want to progress beyond the first three levels of the game. That’s a departure from the industry’s standard, where most mobile games can be played for free but encourage users to buy in-game items to speed up progress. Fans appear to prefer the latter and have lashed out at the lack of free content in “Super Mario Run.”

Another point of criticism has been the $10 price tag, which many gamers have said is too high. At that level, only 1 to 2 percent of people who download the game will buy the full version, according to Apptopia Inc. If the price were lowered to $2, it could likely convert 3 to 4 percent. The researcher estimates the lower price would translate into revenue of about $50 million for this month, versus about $30 million at the current price.