A gas turbine includes an air cooler that subjects compressed air extracted from a compressor to heat exchange and supplies the cooled compressed air to a cooling system of a rotor system in a turbine; an air cooler bypass line that bypasses the compressed air introduced into the air cooler; an electric valve provided in the air cooler bypass line; and a control unit. The control unit controls opening and closing of the electric valve such that, during activation of a gas turbine, a degree of opening of the electric valve is set at or below a low-level degree of opening and such that, after the load of the gas turbine has been increased, the degree of opening of the electric valve is set to be larger than the low-level degree of opening.