Great Lakes Closes Springfield, IL Maintenance Base

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Dick Fontaine
Senior VP- Marketing
(712)264-3190
(712)262-1000

GREAT LAKES AVIATION CLOSES SPRINGFIELD, IL MAINTENANCE BASE; SCHEDULED SERVICE TO CHICAGO TO CONTINUE WITHOUT CHANGES

Spencer, Iowa -- December 28, 1998 -- Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLUX) today announced that, as a result of reductions in the number of overnight aircraft at Springfield, Illinois, the company will close its Beech 1900 maintenance facility located at Capital Airport.

As a result of improvements in aircraft utilization and changes in the company's air service patterns in central and southern Illinois, the number of overnight aircraft at Capital Airport has been reduced from four to one. With only a single aircraft now spending the night at the Springfield Airport, it is no longer cost effective to continue to assign maintenance work to the facility.

Twenty employees are affected by this action and all have been offered transfers to other Great Lakes maintenance locations.

Great Lakes Aviation's flights serving Springfield, Illinois are operated under the United Express marketing identity. This is a comprehensive marketing agreement under which the full United Airlines product line is made available to travelers to and from Capital Airport.

Great Lakes' United Express schedule offering at Springfield is not affected and will continue to consist of five weekday roundtrips to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and four weekday roundtrips to Meigs Field, located on Chicago's lakefront.

As of December 15, 1998, Great Lakes was providing scheduled service at 71 airports in thirteen states under the United Express identity with a fleet of eight Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias and 40 Beechcraft 1900D regional airliners.

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