Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. Reports August 2008 Traffic

CHEYENNE, Wyo., Sept. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. (OTC Bulletin Board: GLUX) today announced preliminary passenger traffic results for the month of August 2008.

Scheduled service generated 13,699,000 revenue passenger miles (RPM's), a 9.9 percent decrease from the same month last year. Available seat miles (ASM's) increased 9.9 percent to 32,203,000. As a result, load factor decreased 9.3 points to 42.54 percent. Passengers carried decreased 7.9 percent to 51,336 when compared to August 2007. Preliminary revenue per available seat mile (RASM) increased 0.1 percent from 31.33 cents to 31.35 cents.

For the eight months ending August 31, 2008 compared to the same eight month period in 2007, revenue passenger miles (RPM's) increased 0.5 percent to 104,215,000 and available seat miles (ASM's) increased 11.2 percent to 232,464,000, resulting in a load factor of 44.83 percent for the year 2008 effecting a decrease in load factor of 4.8 points compared to the same eight month period in 2007. The company carried 388,173 revenue passengers for the eight month period ending August 31, 2008, a 1.8 percent increase from the prior year. Preliminary revenue per available seat mile (RASM) increased 5.1 percent from 29.75 cents to 31.28 cents on a year-over-year basis.

                   AUGUST 2008 AND YEAR TO DATE STATISTICS

                                   Aug-08         Aug-07           Change
    Passengers Enplaned            51,336         55,710           (7.9)%
    Revenue Passenger Miles (000)  13,699         15,202           (9.9)%
    Available Seat Miles (000)     32,203         29,302             9.9%
    Load Factor                    42.54%         51.88%          (9.3) pts
    RASM (cents)                    31.35          31.33             0.1%

                                  YTD 2008       YTD 2007          Change
    Passengers Enplaned            388,173        381,332            1.8%
    Revenue Passenger Miles (000)  104,215        103,711            0.5%
    Available Seat Miles (000)     232,464        208,991           11.2%
    Load Factor                     44.83%         49.62%         (4.8) pts
    RASM (cents)                     31.28          29.75            5.1%

Great Lakes is providing scheduled passenger service at 58 airports in seventeen states with a fleet of Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias and Raytheon/Beech 1900D regional airliners. A current route map may be viewed at http://www.flygreatlakes.com/route_map/route_map.htm.

All scheduled flights are operated under the Great Lakes Airlines marketing identity in conjunction with code-share agreements with United Airlines and/or Frontier Airlines at our Denver, Phoenix, Kansas City, MO and Ontario, CA hubs. The company also operates hubs in Albuquerque, Milwaukee, and St. Louis.

Additional information about Great Lakes Airlines is available at http://www.flygreatlakes.com.

Contact: Michael Matthews, VP Finance/CFO

               (307) 432-7000