Great Lakes Airlines - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

See also Great Lakes Airlines (Canada)
Great Lakes Airlines (Canada)
Great Lakes Airlines was an airline in Canada. It was formed in 1958 in Sarnia , Ontario by Mr. John Blunt and by 1983 became Air Ontario Ltd...

Great Lakes Airlines , is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

regional airline

Airline

An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...

operating domestic scheduled and charter services. Corporate headquarters are located in Cheyenne

Cheyenne, Wyoming

Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population is 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the...

, Wyoming

Wyoming

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

, with hubs at Denver International Airport

Denver International Airport

Denver International Airport , often referred to as DIA, is an airport in Denver, Colorado. By land size, at , it is the largest international airport in the United States, and the third largest international airport in the world after King Fahd International Airport and Montréal-Mirabel...

, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located southeast of the central business district of the city of Phoenix, in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States...

, Los Angeles International Airport

Los Angeles International Airport

Los Angeles International Airport is the primary airport serving the Greater Los Angeles Area, the second-most populated metropolitan area in the United States. It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually...

, McCarran International Airport

McCarran International Airport

McCarran International Airport is the principal commercial airport serving Las Vegas and Clark County, Nevada, United States. The airport is located five miles south of the central business district of Las Vegas, in the unincorporated area of Paradise in Clark County. It covers an area of and...

in Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

, and Albuquerque International Sunport

Albuquerque International Sunport

Albuquerque International Sunport is a public airport located 3 miles southeast of the central business district of Albuquerque, a city in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, United States. It is the largest commercial airport in the state, handling 5,888,811 passengers in 2009...

History

The airline was established by Doug Voss and Ivan Simpson and started operations on April 5, 1977. It began scheduled services on October 12, 1981, with flights between Spencer, Iowa

Spencer, Iowa

Spencer is a city in the state of Iowa , and the county seat of Clay County . It is located at the confluence of the Little Sioux and Ocheyedan Rivers. The population was 11,233 in the 2010 census, a decline from 11,317 in the 2000 census. Spencer is famous as the home of the Clay County Fair,...

, and Des Moines, Iowa

Des Moines, Iowa

Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...

. In February 1988, Great Lakes acquired Alliance Airlines, adding six cities around Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...

to the route network. In the following years it continued to expand and in February 1992 signed a codesharing agreement with United Airlines

United Airlines

United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...

. On January 19, 1994, the airline went public trading on the NASDAQ

NASDAQ

The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...

stock exchange. In October 1995, Great Lakes began operating under the Midway Connection banner at Raleigh

Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...

/Durham

Durham, North Carolina

Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake County. It is the fifth-largest city in the state, and the 85th-largest in the United States by population, with 228,330 residents as of the 2010 United States census...

through a marketing agreement with Midway Airlines, but this ceased in 1997. Prior to the relocation of the headquarters to Cheyenne, Great Lakes was headquartered in Summit Township

Summit Township, Clay County, Iowa

Summit Township is a township in Clay County, Iowa, USA. As of the 2000 census, its population was 452. Spencer Municipal Airport is located in the township.- Geography :...

, Clay County

Clay County, Iowa

-2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 16,667 in the county, with a population density of . There were 8,062 housing units, of which 7,282 were occupied.-2000 census:...

, Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

, by Spencer Municipal Airport

Spencer Municipal Airport

Spencer Municipal Airport , also known as Northwest Iowa Regional Airport, is a public airport located three miles northwest of the central business district of Spencer, a city in Clay County, Iowa, United States. It is owned by the City of Spencer.The airport is not served by any commercial...

and near the city of Spencer

Spencer, Iowa

.

Its status with United Express

United Express

United Express is a brand name under which eight regional airlines operate feeder flights for United Airlines. They primarily connect smaller cities with United's domestic hub airports and “focus cities,” although they offer some point-to-point service such as Sacramento to Eureka.As of Sept...

was downgraded to a codeshare agreement in 2001 and on May 1, 2001, it became an independent carrier. Great Lakes has code sharing

Code sharing

A codeshare agreement, sometimes simply codeshare, is an aviation business arrangement where two or more airlines share the same flight. A seat can be purchased on one airline but is actually operated by a cooperating airline under a different flight number or code...

agreements with United Airlines

United Airlines

and Frontier Airlines

Frontier Airlines

Frontier Airlines, Inc., is an American airline headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The carrier, which is a subsidiary and operating brand of Republic Airways Holdings, operates flights to 83 destinations throughout the United States, Mexico, and Costa Rica and maintains hubs at...

.

The airline added service to a new hub serving Las Vegas, Nevada

McCarran International Airport

, on April 7, 2010.

Destinations

Great Lakes Airlines serves 48 of its destinations through the Essential Air Service

Essential Air Service

Essential Air Service is a U.S. government program enacted to guarantee that small communities in the United States, which, prior to deregulation, were served by certificated airlines, maintained commercial service. Its aim is to maintain a minimal level of scheduled air service to these...

program, and is the largest Essential Air Service provider in the United States.

Fleet

Great Lakes Airlines operates two types of aircraft in its fleet. Great Lakes is the world's largest single operator of the Beechcraft 1900

Beechcraft 1900

The Beechcraft 1900 is a 19-passenger, pressurized twin-engine turboprop airplane manufactured by the Beechcraft Division of the Raytheon Company . It was designed, and is primarily used, as a regional airliner...

.

The Great Lakes Airlines fleet includes the following aircraft:

**Great Lakes Airlines fleet**
Aircraft	Total	Passengers
Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia -Accidents:*Brazilian Air Force on July 8, 1988 an Embraer EMB 120RT Brasília registration FAB-2001 crashed during and engine-out landing at São José dos Campos. Five of the 9 occupants died....	6	30
Raytheon Beechcraft Beech 1900D Airliner	32	19

External links

Great Lakes Airlines
Greatlakesav.com (Archive)

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.