Great Lakes Reports October Traffic With Highest Ever October Load Factor

GREAT LAKES AVIATION REPORTS RECORD OCTOBER TRAFFIC WITH HIGHEST EVER OCTOBER LOAD FACTOR AND PASSENGER ENPLANEMENTS.

Spencer, Iowa – November 5, 1999 – Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLUX) today announced preliminary passenger traffic results for the month of October. Passengers carried and load factor represented new record high levels for October.

Although enplaned passengers increased, revenue passenger miles generated were lower than the same month last year because of significant changes in the company's United Express route structure. Average passenger trip length declined 38 miles or 13 percent from 284 miles in 1998 to 246 miles in 1999. This reduction in average trip length is a result of the deletion of longer haul markets in Chicago and Denver and the addition of shorter haul, higher yield markets in Denver.

Scheduled service generated 23,343,000 revenue passenger miles (RPMs), a 4.8 percent decrease from the same month last year. Available seat miles (ASMs) decreased 11.7 percent to 42,201,000. As a result load factor increased 4.0 points to 55.3 percent. The company carried 94,717 passengers, a 9.8 percent increase compared to October, 1998 and a new record high for the month of October.

For the ten month period ended October 31, 1999 compared to the same ten month in 1998, RPMs increased 8.6 percent to 224,345,000 while ASMs increased 12.1 percent to 445,575,000, resulting in a load factor of 50.3 percent for 1999 compared to 51.9 percent for the same ten month period in 1998. The company carried 887,549 passengers for the ten months ended October 31, 1999, a 24.4 percent increase on a year over year basis.

	Oct., 1999	Oct., 1998	Change
Passengers Enplaned	94,717	86,301	+9.8%
Revenue Passenger Miles (000)	23,343	24,520	-4.8%
Available Seat Miles (000)	42,201	47,815	-11.7%
Load Factor	55.3%	51.3%	+4.0 Pts.

	YTD 1999	YTD 1998	Change
Passenger Enplaned	887,549	713,403	+24.4%
Revenue Passenger Miles (000)	224,345	206,502	+8.6%
Available Seat Miles (000)	445,575	397,622	+12.1%
Load Factor	50.3%	51.9%	-1.6 Pts.

As previously announced, Great Lakes discontinued its United Express flights between Mount Vernon, Illinois and Chicago-O'Hare International Airport on October 31, 1999.

As of November 1, 1999, United Express flights were being provided at 67 airports in fourteen states with a fleet of eight Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias and 40 Raytheon/Beech 1900D regional airliners. A total of 290 weekday flights are scheduled at three hubs, 88 flights at Chicago O'Hare, 190 flights at Denver and 12 flights at Minneapolis-St. Paul. In addition, the company operates four weekday round trip flights between Springfield, Illinois and Chicago-Meigs Field. All Scheduled flights are operated under the United Express marketing identity.