Originally Posted by
Hotel Tango
Very unfortunate, they've been going for quite a while.
Unfortunate for the people employed there who will have to find new jobs, on that I can agree. Other than that, I'm not seeing the unfortunate part. Bear in mind that Great Lakes was the kind of operator who removed all but 9 seats from a 19 seat airplane, for no other reason than so they could operate scheduled service under part 135 instread of part 121, and thus hire 250 hour pilots at their (lowest in the industry) poverty wages instead of increasing their pay scale to attract 1500 hour pilots. Great Lakes was the lowest of the bottom feeders, and went to great lengths to maintain that position.
From a slightly different perspective, Great Lakes existed pretty much exclusively to feed on "Essential Air Services " contracts, in which they are paid to fly route's which don't have the demand to have air service. Just the fact that they were apparently able to serve the needs of the destinations with a 9 seat airplane should tell you about the real need for 7 day a week scheduled air service. We aren't talking about isolated, road-less communities where the is no other practical means means of transportation. The Great Lakes destination were generally connected to good roads which allowed driving to a larger city with scheduled air service. I have more than once been present at Glasgow MT when their EAS predecessor, Big Sky arrived, with an empty metroliner, the F/O went into the station with paperwork, returned, presumably with different paperwork, and they departed, for the next stop, again, empty. No doubt there will be someone to take their place, and the EAS subsidy will live on, but I see no reason to lament the demise of the operator with the industry wide worst terms of employment, which existed solely to collect an unnecessary government subsidy.