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

       (307) 432-7000

Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. Reports October 2004 Traffic

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

Scheduled service generated 11,713,002 revenue passenger miles (RPM�s), a 3.3 percent increase from the same month last year.  Available seat miles (ASM�s) declined 9.9 percent to 24,305,048.  As a result, load factor increased 6.1 points to 48.2 percent.  Passengers carried increased 4.4 percent to 42,329 when compared with October 2003.

For the ten months ending October 31, 2004 compared to the same period in 2003, revenue passenger miles (RPM�s) increased 13.0 percent to 113,270,483 as available seat miles (ASM�s) decreased 0.1 percent to 272,036,671, resulting in a load factor of 41.6 percent for the year 2004 compared to 36.8 percent for the same period in 2003.  The company carried 409,402 revenue passengers for the ten month period ending October 31, 2004, a 12.7 percent increase on a year-over-year basis.

OCTOBER AND YEAR TO DATE STATISTICS

     October 2004  October 2003  Change

Passengers Enplaned  42,329   40,557      4.4%

Revenue Passenger Miles (000) 11,713   11,342      3.3%

Available Seat Miles (000) 24,305   26,966    -9.9%

Load Factor    48.2%   42.1%       6.1 points

     YTD 2004  YTD 2003  Change

Passengers Enplaned  409,402  363,253   12.7%

Revenue Passenger Miles (000) 113,270  100,243   13.0%

Available Seat Miles (000) 272,037  272,237     -0.1%

Load Factor    41.6%   36.8%       4.8 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