Great Lakes Airlines

Booking a flight

Great Lakes Airlines will keep a booking on demand for 24 hrs without charge, as long as the date of flight is more than seven working day away, by contacting our reservations department at the price indicated. Up to 24 hrs can be spent requesting a full and non-penalable reimbursement by contacting our reservations department at 1-800-554-5111 if you are purchasing a Great Lakes Reservations, Great Lakes ticket counter or www.flygreatlakes.com ticketing, provided that at the point of sale the date of your trip is more than 7 working days away.

All fines of the fares for your tickets are valid after 24h. Every alteration to your travel route within the 24-hour holding time may lead to a modification of the ticketing rate. You can reach the reservation department at 1-800-554-5111.

History[edit]

Great Lakes Beechcraft 1900D rolling at Denver International Airport. The Great Lakes Airlines (OTCQB: GLUX, OTCQB: GLUX) was an U.S. based regular air service provider that operated national regular and charters flights. The company is headquartered in Cheyenne, Wyoming,[2] with a single hubs at Denver International Airport. From 1992 to 2002, Great Lakes Airlines was a large United Express Freight Charger Operator in over 100 major international destinations.

As of 26 March 2018, the carrier discontinued regular passengers services but supported Aerodynamics Inc. flights[4] until 1 September 2018[5]. Founded by Doug Voss and Ivan Simpson, the company began operating on April 5, 1977. The Great Lakes purchased Alliance Airlines in February 1988 and expanded its routes to six towns around Lake Michigan.

During the following years, it expanded further with services focused mainly on a major intersection at O'Hare International Airport. The Great Lakes entered into a code share with United Airlines in February 1992, which became a United Express Federrier. Between 1992 and 2002, Great Lakes ran substantial United Express activities with Chicago O'Hare and Denver and Minneapolis junctions where United Airlines had no junctions.

Further United Express services were also provided between Phoenix and Page, Arizona, Detroit to Alpena and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and a shuttles service between Springfield, Illinois and Meigs Field in Chicago. 19-seater Beechcraft 1900D and 30-seater Embraer 120 Brasilia planes were used on all services. Effective June 1, 1998, the carrier extended its Denver hubs to include the United Express services previously served by Mesa Airlines.

At the end of 1995, Great Lakes purchased the Arizona Airways property and obtained services from a Tucson International Airport hubs to Phoenix and Page, Arizona, as well as Albuquerque, NM, and several points in the north of Mexico. The Great Lakes' United Express designation was demoted in early 2002 when it became an autonomous airline but continued to have an implied bargaining bargain with United Airlines and set up a new bargaining bargain with Frontier Airlines.

Ever since, Great Lakes transport has steadily declined and services to many towns have been discontinued, to include the full Chicago O'Hare lift operations. Minneapolis Airport hubs were also shut down, but a small facility was resumed there on March 17, 2012, when Essential Air Services (EAS) lines previously operated by Northwest Airlink airlines were purchased.

Denver is now the major centre of gravity for the Great Lakes, but the route from Denver has also disappeared. In many of the towns where the company once operated as United Express, there is no longer an air transport any more. Additional Albuquerque to Clovis and Silver City, NM services were launched on 3 April 2005 after the EAS agreements for these towns, previously owned by Mesa Airlines, were signed.

Those services ran until 30 November 2012. The EAS subsidised services currently operating from Phoenix and Los Angeles and small turnstiles in Milwaukee, Kansas City, St. Louis and Billiings were also carried out on EAS services from 2007 to 2010. On April 7, 2009, a hub facility was opened at Ontario International Airport with connections to Merced and Visalia, California, and to Kingman and Prescott, Arizona; both continue on to Farmington, New Mexico.

On April 7, 2010, the carrier opened a new Las Vegas, Nevada hubs with flights to Ely, Nevada, Page, Arizona, Farmington, NM and Merced and Visalia, California. By 2013, a new decision by the federal administration obliging the first officer to fly at least 1,500 flying hours and to limit the amount of time off and on board the aircraft's crews had placed a heavy burden on the Great Lakes and many other airlines.

It was then compelled to remove ten passengers from most of its 19-seater Beech 1900Ds. A lot of planes had to be canceled, as well as all connections to several towns. The flight to Sheridan, Wyoming was discontinued on 1 April 2015 and the isolated town left without a flight there.

Since the early beginnings of air travel, Sheridan has been serviced by many airlines, some with jet liners, among them Boeing 737s from Western Airlines. The majority of the Great Lakes services are subsidised by the Essential Air Service. In the course of its existence, the company has operated at least 161 towns and 163 aerodromes (three in Chicago), but by 22 March 2018 it had only seven.

The Great Lakes had a rather uncommon subject in which many of their Beech 1900D planes had their cocks decorated with decorated promotional towns to which they had flown and national parks in their area. The majority of these planes have now been decommissioned and the carrier no longer operates to several of these towns.

By 2016, the Great Lakes had signed a code -share deal called the Great Lakes Jet Express, in which they would be selling tickets: for Elite Airways to and from Denver and Houston to Branson Airport; for Aerodynamics Inc. on a Chicago O'Hare to Youngstown stretch, and later an EAS stretch from Denver to Pierre with additional services to Watertown, South Dakota.

It is a contentious practise that allows codeshare airlines to take full benefit of current sales and interconnection arrangements with GLS and other airlines. Chicago - Jungstown was canceled less than two month after it started because United Airlines declined to honour its Great Lakes Chicago contract, declaring that only Denver services were included.

11 ] The Elite Airways ministry from Denver and Houston to Branson, Missouri, was also discontinued soon after it began. In the 1980s, Great Lakes used Beechcraft C99 and Beechcraft 1900C turbo-prop airplanes. Built to operate two kinds of turbo-prop airplanes, the Beechcraft 1900D and the Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia.

The Great Lakes was once the world's biggest Beechcraft 1900 owner. Great Lakes Route Map (PDF). Big Lakes Airlines. Essential subsidies for air transport through the airport" (PDF). transport.gov. "The shortage of pilot aircraft is shutting down the U.S. regional airline Great Lakes Airlines." Great Lakes Airlines will no longer sell seats for travel by Aerodynamics Inc. after September 1, 2018 (PDF). greatlakesav.com.

Welcome to Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd. "Great Lakes Airlines. Big Lakes Airlines. Great Lakes suspends flight operations (PDF). Big Lakes Airlines. Big Lakes Airlines. Great Lakes Airlines. Global Airline Guide 2016. ASN Flugunfall Beechcraft 1900D Nürburgring Denver International Airport, CO (DEN)". air-safety.net" (novembre 2016) : 38.