Great Lakes Aviation Reports May Traffic Results With Highest Ever Load Factor for the MonthCHEYENNE, Wyo., June 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. (Nasdaq: GLUX - news) today announced preliminary passenger traffic results for the month of May. Scheduled service generated 19,820,947 revenue passenger miles (RPM's), an 8.3 percent decrease from the same month last year. Available seat miles (ASM's) decreased 12.8 percent to 38,148,140. As a result, load factor increased 2.6 points to 52.0 percent and represents the highest ever load factor for the month of May. Passengers carried decreased 10.9 percent compared to May, 2000 to 78,206. For the five months ended May 31, 2001 compared to the same period in 2000, revenue passenger miles (RPM's) decreased 9.7 percent to 90,702,791 and available seat miles (ASM's) decreased 10.3 percent to 192,470,354, resulting in a load factor of 47.1 percent for the year 2001 compared to 46.8 percent for the same five month period in 2000. The company carried 377,399 revenue passengers for the five month period ending May 31, 2001, a 9.3 percent decrease on a year over year basis.
MAY AND YEAR TO DATE STATISTICS ``While the Company is pleased with the record load factor, like the rest of the airline industry, it is experiencing a significant deterioration of yield in its core business markets,'' said Doug Voss, President and CEO. ``Current traffic is utilizing a greater percentage of discount fares which has substantially reduced average ticket prices,'' he added. In an effort to improve yields and overall profitability, the Company has recently increased its published through fares with other airlines and intends to reduce the availability of discount seats offered for sale. These changes will tend to reduce the load factors in future periods. May, 2001 was the first month that the Company operated under its Great Lakes Airlines name rather than as a United Express carrier. The traveling public appears to have readily accepted this change and the Company expects to realize substantial benefits from the flexibility of this contract including the limited capability to enter into code sharing agreements with other carriers. Effective May 1, Great Lakes discontinued or significantly reduced service in three Chicago-O'Hare markets. On the same date, Great Lakes began service between Cody, Wyoming and Denver and significantly increased service between Denver and Casper, Wyoming and Amarillo, Texas. Beginning June 7, 2001, Great Lakes Airlines flights will be scheduled at 55 airports in fifteen states with a fleet of eight Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias and 40 Raytheon/Beech 1900D regional airliners. A total of 306 weekday flights are scheduled at three hubs, with 256 flights at Denver, 36 flights at Chicago-O'Hare and 14 flights at Minneapolis/St. Paul. In addition, the company operates four weekday round trip flights between Springfield, Illinois and Chicago-Meigs Field. All Great Lakes Airlines flights operate under a code-share agreement with United Airlines. As previously announced, Great Lakes Aviation has also entered into a code-share agreement with Frontier Airlines. The Frontier code will be placed on flights in seven of Great Lakes Airlines, Denver markets beginning in July with more markets to be added in September. The foregoing release contains forward-looking terminology which is made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Potential purchasers of the Company's securities are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements which are qualified in their entirety by the cautions and risks in reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Additional company information is available on its web site which may be accessed at www.greatlakesav.com CONTACT: Douglas Voss, President and CEO of Great Lakes Aviation, |