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

       (307) 432-7000

Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. Reports December 2004 Traffic

CHEYENNE, Wyo., January 18, 2005 � Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. (OTC Bulletin Board: GLUX � news) today announced preliminary passenger traffic results for the month of December.

Scheduled service generated 10,558,147 revenue passenger miles (RPM�s), an 18.1 percent decrease from the same month last year.  Available seat miles (ASM�s) declined 16.9 percent to 24,177,451. As a result, load factor decreased 0.6 points to 43.7 percent.  Passengers carried decreased 13.2 percent to 38,464 when compared with December 2003.

For the twelve months ending December 31, 2004 compared to the same period in 2003, revenue passenger miles (RPM�s) increased 7.7 percent to 133,948,419 as available seat miles (ASM�s) decreased 3.1 percent to 318,904,215, resulting in a load factor of 42.0 percent for the year 2004 compared to 37.8 percent for the same period in 2003.  The company carried 484,428 revenue passengers for the twelve month period ending December 30, 2004, an 8.5 percent increase on a year-over-year basis.  Year over year comparisons were significantly impacted by the discontinuation of unprofitable high load factor/low yield service to Casper, WY, Rapid City, SD and Wichita, KS.

DECEMBER AND YEAR TO DATE STATISTICS

     December 2004 December 2003 Change

Passengers Enplaned  38,464   44,322  -13.2%

Revenue Passenger Miles (000) 10,558   12,889    -18.1%

Available Seat Miles (000) 24,177   29,085  -16.9%

Load Factor    43.7%   44.3%     -0.6 points

     YTD 2004  YTD 2003  Change

Passengers Enplaned  484,428  446,528     8.5%

Revenue Passenger Miles (000) 133,948  124,410     7.7%

Available Seat Miles (000) 318,904  329,135     -3.1%

Load Factor    42.0%   37.8%       4.2 points

Great Lakes is providing scheduled passenger service at 31 airports in nine states with a fleet of Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias and Raytheon/Beech 1900D regional airliners.  A total of 160 weekday flights are scheduled at two hubs, with 156 flights at Denver and 4 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