FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Dave Thomas, VP Marketing and Planning

       (307) 432-7000

Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. Reports August 2004 Traffic

CHEYENNE, Wyo., September 16, 2004 � Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. (OTC Bulletin Board: GLUX � news) today announced preliminary passenger traffic results for the month of August.

Scheduled service generated 12,863,497 revenue passenger miles (RPM�s), a 1.4 percent increase from the same month last year.  Available seat miles (ASM�s) declined 1.6 percent to 29,423,604.  As a result, load factor increased 1.3 points to 43.7 percent.  Passengers carried increased 3.1 percent to 46,979 when compared with August 2003.

For the eight months ending August 31, 2004 compared to the same eight month period in 2003, revenue passenger miles (RPM�s) increased 15.8 percent to 90,821,888 as available seat miles (ASM�s) increased 8.9 percent to 224,010,671, resulting in a load factor of 40.5 percent for the year 2004 compared to 36.1 percent for the same eight month period in 2003. The company carried 327,244 revenue passengers for the eight month period ending August 31, 2004, a 15.2 percent increase on a year-over-year basis.

AUGUST AND YEAR TO DATE STATISTICS

     August 2004 August 2003  Change

Passengers Enplaned  46,979   45,586    3.1%

Revenue Passenger Miles (000) 12,863   12,689    1.4%

Available Seat Miles (000) 29,423   29,915  -1.6%

Load Factor    43.7%   42.4%       1.3 points

     YTD 2004  YTD 2003  Change

Passengers Enplaned  327,244  284,161 15.2%

Revenue Passenger Miles (000)  90,822  78,459 15.8%

Available Seat Miles (000) 224,011  217,451   3.0%

Load Factor    40.5%   36.1%     4.4 points

Great Lakes is providing scheduled passenger service at 32 airports in nine states with a fleet of Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias and Raytheon/Beech 1900D regional airliners. A total of 156 weekday flights are scheduled at two hubs, with 150 flights at Denver and 6 flights at Phoenix. All scheduled flights are operated under the Great Lakes Airlines marketing identity in conjunction with code-share agreements with United Airlines and Frontier Airlines at the Denver International Airport hub.

Additional information is available on the company web site that may be accessed at www.greatlakesav.com