CHEYENNE, Wyo., January 27, 2014 –  Effective February 1, 2014, Great Lakes Airlines will be suspending service from Devils Lake and Jamestown, ND; Fort Dodge and Mason City, IA; Ironwood, MI; and Thief River Falls, MN due to the severe industry-wide pilot shortage and its relative acute impact on Great Lakes.

Charles Howell, CEO released the following statement:

“Due to the unintended consequences of the new congressionally mandated pilot regulatory requirements, the Company feels it is in the best interest of our customers, communities, and employees to suspend service from these stations until we are able to rebuild our staff of pilots in order to provide reliable service.   We deeply regret and apologize for this inconvenience.”

All customers with future flights in any of these stations will be given refunds. Please begin your refund efforts with your initial booking source.

For more background information regarding how the regulatory changes have affected Great Lakes’ unique role in the airline industry, please visit our website at  www.FlyGreatLakes.com

Great Lakes Airlines provides scheduled passenger air service with a fleet of Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia’s and Beechcraft 1900D regional airliners. A current route map may be viewed at: http://www.flygreatlakes.com/route_map/Docs/route_map.pdf

Additional information is available on the Company web site that may be accessed at www.flygreatlakes.com

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With the elimination of service to 6 airports, plus the 4 already ended, the total EAS airports served by Great Lakes will drop from 44 to 34.  Airports where service has or will end:

Thief River Falls, MN

Mason City, IA

Fort Dodge, IA

Ironwood, MI

Jamestown, ND

Devils Lake, ND

Clovis, NM

Pueblo, Col

Vernal, UT

Moab, UT

GreatLakesRouteMap2