Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. Reports September Traffic

CHEYENNE, Wyo., Oct. 14 Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. (OTC Bulletin Board: GLUX) today announced preliminary passenger traffic results for the month of September.

Scheduled service generated 10,925,000 revenue passenger miles (RPM's), a 5.2 percent increase from the same month last year. Available seat miles (ASM's) increased 7.5 percent to 30,421,000. As a result, load factor decreased less than 1 point to 35.9 percent. Passengers carried decreased .3 percent compared to September 2001 to 41,090.

For the nine months ending September 30, 2002 compared to the same nine month period in 2001, revenue passenger miles (RPM's) decreased 38.0 percent to 102,629,000 while available seat miles (ASM's) decreased 20.7 percent to 269,162,000, resulting in a load factor of 37.2 percent for the year 2002 compared to 48.8 percent for the same nine month period in 2001. The company carried 387,360 revenue passenger for the nine month period ending September 30, 2002, a 42.5 percent decrease on a year over year basis.

Traffic reflects reductions and restructuring of the company's scheduled capacity made following the events of September 11, 2001 with emphasis placed on subsidized Essential Air Service markets.

                    SEPTEMBER AND YEAR TO DATE STATISTICS

                            September 2002    September 2001   Change
    Passengers Enplaned     41,090           41,213            - .3%
    Revenue Passenger
     Miles (000)            10,925           10,352            5.2%
    Available Seat
     Miles (000)            30,421           28,152            7.5%
    Load Factor             35.9%            36.8%             - .9 points

                            YTD 2002         YTD 2001          Change
    Passengers Enplaned     387,360          673,121           - 42.5%
    Revenue Passenger
     Miles (000)            102,629          165,559           - 38.0%
    Available Seat
     Miles (000)            269,162          339,334           - 20.7%
    Load Factor             37.2%            48.8%             - 11.6 points


 

As of October 1, 2002, scheduled passenger service was being provided at 47 airports in fifteen states with a fleet of Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias and Raytheon/Beech 1900D regional airliners. A total of 216 weekday flights are scheduled at four hubs, with 176 flights at Denver, 20 flights at Chicago - O'Hare International Airport, 14 flights at Minneapolis/St. Paul, and 6 flights at Phoenix. All scheduled flights are operated under the Great Lakes Airlines marketing identity in conjunction with code-share agreements with United Airlines and Frontier Airlines.