Great Lakes Reports Higher April Traffic

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Dick Fontaine
Senior VP of Marketing
(712)262-1000

GREAT LAKES AVIATION REPORTS HIGHER APRIL TRAFFIC WITH ENPLANEMENTS UP 9.5 PERCENT

Spencer, Iowa – May 9, 2000– Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLUX) today announced preliminary passenger traffic results for the month of April.

Scheduled service generated 19,817,036 revenue passenger miles (RPMs), a 2.7 percent increase from the same month last year. Available seat miles (ASMs) increased 0.4 percent to 42,833,085. As a result, load factor increased 1.1 points to 46.3 percent. Passengers carried increased 9.5 percent over April, 1999 to 81,640.

For the four months ended April 30, 2000 compared to the same four month period in 1999, revenue passenger miles (RPM's) increased 1.6 percent to 78,772,610 while available seat miles (ASMs) decreased 4.1 percent to 170,824,476, resulting in a load factor of 46.1 percent for the year 2000 compared to 43.5 percent for the same four month period in 1999. The company carried 328,167 revenue passengers for the four month period ending April 30, 2000, a 10.7 percent increase on a year over year basis.

APRIL AND YEAR-TO-DATE STATISTICS

	Apr. 2000	Apr. 1999	Change
Passengers Enplaned	81,640	74,552	+9.5%
Revenue Passenger Miles (000)	19,817	19,299	-2.7%
Available Seat Miles (000)	42,833	42,671	+0.4%
Load Factor	46.3%	45.2%	+1.1 Pts.

	YTD 2000	YTD 1999	Change
Passenger Enplaned	328,167	296,365	+10.7%
Revenue Passenger Miles (000)	78,773	77,499	+1.6%
Available Seat Miles (000)	170,824	178,149	-4.1%
Load Factor	46.1%	43.5%	+2.6 Pts.

As of May 1, 2000, United Express flights were being provided at 63 airports in fourteen states with a fleet of eight Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias and 40 Raytheon/Beech 1900D regional airliners. A total of 294 weekday flights are scheduled at three hubs with 72 flights at Chicago-O'Hare International Airport, 214 at Denver and 8 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 under a code-share agreement with United Airlines.

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