Premier West set to expand West Coast Service with fuel efficient 737-600

Seattle and Cleveland, February 26, 2010

Great Lakes National Holdings Corporation and Boeing have finalized an order for five Boeing 737-600 aircraft.  “Great Lakes and Boeing have a strong partnership and this deal solidifies that commitment between us” said Paul Herman (Owner of Great Lakes Holdings).  The company earlier this month backed out of a deal that would have delivered two 737-800 aircraft.  Paul also stated “The 737-600 has advantages for us; we are set up for flights under 400 miles, that is what we are good at.  Flights over 400 miles just don’t produce the numbers we are looking for, we don’t offer non-stop flights across the country.  We leave that to the airlines that are good at that type of operation”.  Premier West (subsidiary of Great Lakes National Holdings Corp) will be making a hard push this spring with more heavy pressure on Southwest Airlines and US Airways (former America West Routes).  The airline has plans of beginning numerous flights from Los Angeles (LAX) and Portland International (PDX) in March and April.  “Our business model is simple and profitable” says Paul Herman, “we know our cost per ASM and we know our projected profit, it is a small envelope and we are good at it”.  Premier West per ASM is the best in the industry, the shorter the flight the higher the profit margin.

Premier West is expected to take delivery in March of two Boeing 737-300 aircraft.  Both aircraft are currently in Wichita (737 maintenance headquarters for GLE) undergoing a few avionics upgrades, new seats and paint.  The aircraft are expected to arrive in Las Vegas March 13, 2010.  In addition, Great Lakes National Holdings Corp has agreed in terms to a acquire two Boeing 737-500 aircraft from the now defunct Sky Europe, Paul Herman has told us that unfortunately no super models will be painted on the side of the aircraft.  It is not clear which airline the two 737-500 will operate from, Great Lakes Express or Premier West.

Great Lakes Express today announced the addition of yet another Dash 8 Q200 aircraft.  The new aircraft has been placed at the Cleveland hub and will begin service Saturday morning.  While the removal of the Bombardier jets seems to be put on hold, GLE has taken delivery of several Dash 8 Q200 aircraft in 2009 and it is believed several are still on order from the Canadian manufacturer.

Great Lakes Express new service will begin early Saturday morning with their first flight to Kitchener Ontario.  Along with Kitchener, Great Lakes Express will begin service to the Shenandoah Valley Airport  in Weyers Cave Virginia.  The new route will also have flights to Newport News (from Shenandoah Valley), Toledo, Fort Wayne and Dayton.  Great Lakes Express will be the only airline offering international service to Kitchener and will be the second largest airline serving The Region of Waterloo International Airport behind WestJet.  Great Lakes Express continues to serve the large and small destinations in the Great Lakes and the East Coast regions of the United States.

Cleveland, Ohio

Great Lakes National Holdings Incorporated today announced Premier West has been launched on the West Coast of the United States.  Premier West will begin service from Phoenix with Las Vegas coming on board very soon.  The new division will be focusing on Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Southern California to start.  The Department of Transportation has already cleared the way for Premier West to fly to 28 destinations from Phoenix and Arizona.  The new routes are available from the Premier Airways web site, www.premierairways.com and will offer low cost flights throughout the west coast.  As mentioned Premier West is part of the Great Lakes National Holdings Corporation which also owns and operates Great Lakes Express, a regional airline located in the Midwest of the United States.

Paul Herman (owner of Great Lakes National Holdings Inc) today said “this is a big day for us here at GLNH and we are prooud of all of the people associated with this new endeavor”.  He continued to say, “our goal is to provide excellent service to the West Coast as we are currently doing in the Midwest and on the East Coast”.  Great Lakes Express and Premier West currently do not code share but that may change in the future with connecting flights expected through either Denver, Kansas City or Houston (KHOU).

Premier West, the Best of the West

Great Lakes Express today announced in a after midnight meeting deals have been struck with several airports on the East Coast.  After a victorious day in front of the DOT, Great Lakes Express has secured many new routes.  The first to take flight TODAY is an Embraer E120 (N230GL) which is based in Boston flying to New York (LGA), Providence (RI), Newburgh, Hartford and Manchester (MA).  The new destinations increase Great Lakes Express commitment to New England with their fourteenth aircraft, with several still to be placed.  Great Lakes Express has made Boston a new focus city and the residents of the Hartford area continue to reap the rewards.  The new flight numbers are 3700 through 3711 and are available from the Hartford (BDL) page.

Cleveland, Ohio

Great Lakes Express today announced two CRJ-200 aircraft will not renew their lease with the airline and will instead replace them with two new Embraer E145 aircraft.  The move is expected to save the airline between $577,000 to $647,000 over the next 12 months.  The CRJ-200 (tail numbers N551GL and N552GL will see their last flights today.  Great Lakes National Holdings Inc, (parent company of Great Lakes Express) has stated their intentions are to replace all of the Bombardier aircraft this year.  The airline already operates one ERJ-145, 5 E170 and 5 E120 turboprop (with two being added this month).

Great Lakes National Holdings Inc. also announced they have ordered three Boeing 737-700 from Boeing through Advantage Aircraft Leasing Corp. for the newly formed Premier West.  The airline is already expecting three Boeing 737-600 in February.

Cleveland, Ohio

Great Lakes Express today announced the addition of another Embraer E170 twin jet to their fleet.  The aircraft will be based in Detroit and will feature flights to the Toronto Pearson Airport.  This is the first flight into Pearson Airport for Great Lakes Express and there will be three flights daily.  Two flights from Detroit and one from Bradley International.  The aircraft will also fly to Buffalo and Pittsburgh.  The new flights are available now from the Cleveland hub and are flight numbers 864 through 877.

Great Lakes Express also announced today that (1) CRJ-700 has been removed from the fleet and replaced with a brand new Embraer E170.  The aircraft removed was tail number N711GL and replaced with N497GL.  The airline intends on replacing all of the CRJ-700 aircraft by mid summer.

Boston, Massachusetts                                                                                                 January 22, 2010

The owner of Great Lakes Express Regional Airline today announced he has purchased Premier Airways for an estimated 128 million US dollars.  A press conference was held today at the former Premier Airways offices in Boston and most of the details were revealed.  Paul Herman who was the former CEO of The Premier Group (current partner for GLE)which was the holding company for Premier Airways (Passenger Division), Premier North (Canadian Division) and Precision Global Logistics (Cargo Division).  Paul stated that Premier Airways holds over 2,900 slots at airports on 3 continents and most of those slots have been sold off.  The airline has also sold off almost the entire fleet which included aircraft from the Beech 1900D to the 747-400.  Premier Airways has retained several Boeing 737 aircraft which were available for lease but not picked up by any other carrier.  Those leases will now be covered by Great Lakes Express over the next three months.

Paul also stated the plans for Premier Airways now that it is owned by Great Lakes Express.  Premier Airways will now become Premier West and operate solely on the West Coast of the United States with hubs in Phoenix Arizona and Las Vegas Nevada.  Premier West will operate the Boeing 737-500, 737-300, 737-600NG and the 737-700NG.  The 737-500 will operate shorter routes while the 737-700 will operate longer routes.  The airline will run a point to point system rather than a hub and spoke system while focusing on the major destinations in Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, New Mexico and Texas.  Premier West will not be bringing any larger aircraft to the fleet nor will it offer any cargo operations.  Premier West will be branded as a low cost carrier geared to compete with the nation’s leading low cost airlines.  The new airline will not offer regional service at this time nor are there plans to do so in the future, Premier West will focus on flying the single isle 737 in a single class configuration.

The new Premier West will operate as its own entity that is Great Lakes Express will operate as it does currently and Premier West will operate on its own on the West Coast.  Great Lakes Express web site will stay as it is and will not feature any Premier West flights or fleet information.  Premier West will feature its own web site that will function and appear like Great Lakes Express.  Employees will be able to go between both divisions with a simple click of the mouse.

What this means for the Pilots and employees of Great Lakes Express, in short it means nothing; you will still operate as you always do.  You may fly of either airline as the rosters will remain the same for both Divisions.  VAFS will operate the same for both Divisions giving you the ability to log into your pilot client and fly any route in the system.  New pilots who join Premier West will join both airlines.  Much of the data on the Premier West site will look the same as Great Lakes Express, this is done by design and once things are up and running you will be able to see why we are going in this direction.

Paul Herman stated that he knows the fear will be that Great Lakes Express is about to go international.  That is not the case.  He understands that the closing of Premier Airways left many people missing the short 737 flights on the West Coast, soon this will be corrected.  “Once we get up and running you will see how easy this will be for both airlines to function together” Paul said.  “Our 737 pilots and customers will be thrilled with the additional service in one of the most spectacular areas in the world”.

A holding corporation has also been created, the new company is called Great Lakes National Holding Inc. (GLNH) and will remain a privately held company owned and operated by Paul Herman and Zane Greenwald.  This company will operate Great Lakes Express and Premier West Airways.  Great Lakes Express currently is valued at 20 million US dollars with 1.5 million dollars in monthly liabilities.  GLNH will lease five Boeing 737 aircraft with a commitment of five more within the next 15 months.  The company will not feature any flights that will connect the two airlines together; again, they will operate as two separate entities.

Finally, the new Premier West will function on the West Coast much the same way Great Lakes Express does on the East Coast, just with 737 aircraft.  We look forward to bringing you this new service and please watch www.premierairways.com for updates and progress.

Welcome Aboard!

Cleveland, Ohio

Great Lakes Express today announced a new aircraft acquisition from Advantage Aircraft Leasing.  The new aircraft which is a Embraer E170 has been placed at the Hartford hub for GLE.   The new destinations include Ocean City, Providence, New York, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Philadelphia, Norfolk and Baltimore.  The new flight numbers are 3500 – 3514 and are available now through the Hartford (KBDL) hub.