CHEYENNE, Wyo., Jan. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. (OTC Bulletin Board: GLUX) today announced preliminary passenger traffic results for the month of December 2009 and year ending December 31, 2009.



                       DECEMBER 2009 AND YEAR ENDING STATISTICS

                                   Dec-09               Dec-08        Change
    Passengers Enplaned            40,884               43,576        (6.2)%
    Revenue Passenger
     Miles (000)                   11,790               12,315        (4.3)%
    Available Seat Miles (000)     31,682               31,416          0.8%
    Load Factor                      37.2%                39.2%   (2.0) pts
    RASM (cents)                    31.79                31.26          1.7%


                                 YTD 2009             YTD 2008       Change

    Passengers Enplaned           481,688              569,844       (15.5)%

    Revenue Passenger
     Miles (000)                  134,077              154,655       (13.3)%
    Available Seat Miles (000)    401,068              360,636         11.2%
    Load Factor                      33.4%                42.9%   (9.5) pts
    RASM (cents)                    29.45                31.24        (5.7)%

Great Lakes is providing scheduled passenger service at 61 airports in sixteen states with a fleet of Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias and Raytheon/Beech 1900D regional airliners. Additional information is available at http://www.flygreatlakes.com/ including a current route map at http://www.flygreatlakes.com/route_map/route_map.pdf.

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 Albuquerque, Billings, Denver, Phoenix, Kansas City, MO and Ontario, CA hubs. The company also operates a Milwaukee hub.



    Contact:     Michael Matthews, VP Finance/CFO
                 (307) 432-7000

SOURCE Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd.