Great Lakes Airlines July 00 Traffic

GREAT LAKES AVIATION REPORTS JULY TRAFFIC; SETS NEW ALL TIME COMPANY RECORD FOR PASSENGER ENPLANEMENTS.

Cheyenne, Wyoming � August 9, 2000� Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLUX) today announced preliminary passenger traffic results for the month of July.

In July, 2000 the average passenger trip length declined six percent compared to July, 1999. In spite of an increase in enplaned passengers, revenue passenger miles declined. This reflects the shift in flying from longer stage length markets such as Denver to Bismarck, North Dakota and Sioux Falls, South Dakota to shorter stage length markets such as Denver to Santa Fe, New Mexico and Gillette, Wyoming.

Scheduled service generated 26,062,573 revenue passenger miles (RPMs), a 4.2 percent decrease from the same month last year. Available seat miles (ASMs) decreased 1.6 percent to 45,262,972. As a result, load factor decreased 1.5 points to 57.6 percent. The company carried 111,354 passengers, a 1.5 percent increase compared to July, 1999 and represents a new record monthly passenger total. The previous high was July, 1999 when 109,587 revenue passengers were boarded.

For the seven month period ended July 31, 2000, compared to the same seven month period in 1999, RPMs increased 19.5 percent to 150,653,620, while (ASMs) increased 14.4 percent to 307,285,467 resulting in a load factor of 49.0 percent for 2000 compared to 46.9 percent for the same seven month period in 1999. The company carried 628,655 passengers for the seven months ended July 31, 2000, a 28.4 percent increase on a year over year basis.

	July, 2000	July, 1999	Change
Passengers Enplaned	111,354	109,707	+1.5%
Revenue Passenger Miles (000)	26,063	27,209	-4.2%
Available Seat Miles (000)	45,269	46,013	-1.6%
Load Factor	57.6%	59.1%	-1.5pts

	YTD 2000	YTD 1999	Change
Passenger Enplaned	628,655	489,682	+28.4%
Revenue Passenger Miles (000)	150,654	126,118	+19.5%
Available Seat Miles (000)	307,285	268,666	+14.4%
Load Factor	49.0%	46.9%	+2.1pts

As of August 1, 2000, United Express flights were being provided at 61 airports in fourteen states with a fleet of eight Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias and 40 Raytheon/Beech 1900D regional airliners. A total of 338 weekday flights are scheduled at three hubs with 98 flights at Chicago-O'Hare International Airport, 228 at Denver and 12 at Minneapolis-St. Paul. In addition, the company operates 4 weekday round trip flights between Springfield, IL, and Chicago Meigs Field. All scheduled flights are operated under the United Express marketing identity.