Great Lakes Aviation Reports Higher February Traffic With Highest Ever February Load Factor

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

GREAT LAKES AVIATION REPORTS HIGHER FEBRUARY TRAFFIC WITH HIGHEST EVER FEBRUARY LOAD FACTOR AND PASSENGER ENPLANEMENTS

Spencer, Iowa – March 14, 2000 – Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLUX) today announced preliminary passenger traffic results for the month of February. Passengers carried and load factor represented new record high levels for February.

Scheduled service generated 19,493,170 revenue passenger miles (RPMs), a 4.7 percent increase from the same month last year. Available seat miles (ASMs) decreased 4.1 percent to 41,950,151. As a result, load factor increased 3.9 points to 46.5 percent, the highest ever February load factor for the company. Passengers carried increased 13.8 percent over February, 1999 to 80,481, and also represents a new record high for the month of February.

For the two months ended February 29, 2000 compared to the same two month period in 1999, revenue passenger miles (RPMs) decreased 4.7 percent to 84,549,973, resulting in a load factor of 45.3 percent for the year 2000 compared to 41.9 percent for the same two month period in 1999. The company carried 157,436 revenue passengers for the two month period ended February 29, 2000, an 11.9 percent increase on a year over year basis.

FEBRUARY AND YEAR-TO-DATE STATISTICS

	Feb., 1999	Feb., 1998	Change
Passengers Enplaned	80,481	70,732	+13.8%
Revenue Passenger Miles (000)	19,493	19,619	+4.7%
Available Seat Miles (000)	41,950	43,729	-4.1%
Load Factor	46.5%	42.6%	+3.9 Pts.

	YTD 2000	YTD 1999	Change
Passenger Enplaned	157,436	140,636	+11.9%
Revenue Passenger Miles (000)	38,260	37,117	+3.1%
Available Seat Miles (000)	84,550	88,677	+4.7%
Load Factor	45.3%	41.9%	+3.4 Pts.

As of March 1, 2000, United Express flights were being provided at 64 airports in fourteen states with a fleet of eight Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias and 40 Raytheon/Beech 1900D regional airliners. A total of 292 weekday flights are scheduled at three hubs, 82 flights at Chicago-O'Hare, 202 flights at Denver and 8 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.

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