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

       (307) 432-7000

Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. Reports November 2004 Traffic

CHEYENNE, Wyo., December 20, 2004 � Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. (OTC Bulletin Board: GLUX � news) today announced preliminary passenger traffic results for the month of November.

Scheduled service generated 10,119,789 revenue passenger miles (RPM�s), a 10.3 percent decrease from the same month last year.  Available seat miles (ASM�s) declined 18.4 percent to 22,690,093. As a result, load factor increased 4.1 points to 44.6 percent.  Passengers carried decreased 6.2 percent to 36,557 when compared with November 2003.

For the eleven months ending November 30, 2004 compared to the same period in 2003, revenue passenger miles (RPM�s) increased 10.6 percent to 123,390,272 as available seat miles (ASM�s) decreased 1.8 percent to 294,726,764, resulting in a load factor of 41.9 percent for the year 2004 compared to 37.2 percent for the same period in 2003.  The company carried 445,959 revenue passengers for the eleven month period ending November 30, 2004, a 10.9 percent increase on a year-over-year basis.

NOVEMBER AND YEAR TO DATE STATISTICS

     November 2004 November 2003 Change

Passengers Enplaned  36,557   38,953    -6.2%

Revenue Passenger Miles (000) 10,120   11,278    -10.3%

Available Seat Miles (000) 22,690   27,813  -18.4%

Load Factor    44.6%   40.5%       4.1 points

     YTD 2004  YTD 2003  Change

Passengers Enplaned  445,959  402,206   10.9%

Revenue Passenger Miles (000) 123,390  111,521   10.6%

Available Seat Miles (000) 294,727  300,050     -1.8%

Load Factor    41.9%   37.2%       4.7 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