Construction is to begin this month on a new aircraft hangar at the Butler County Airport in Penn.

The bigger hangar will allow AirQuest Aviation, the airport's fixed-base operator, to meet a growing demand for charter flights in the business community, said Jeff Bennett, chief operating officer.

The company expects the new 18,750-square-foot hangar will allow it to bring in more planes and employ more people at the airport.

AirQuest officials scheduled a ground-breaking ceremony last week to mark the start of construction. The $1 million project is expected to be finished by January, Mr. Bennett said.

AirQuest needs the hangar to follow its strategic growth plan, which includes a planned expansion of its charter fleet and flight school. Also, the new facility is needed for more maintenance work, especially in light of what Mr. Bennett described as a growing relationship between AirQuest and Specialty Turbine Service, a company based in Cranberry that maintains aircraft engines and uses hangar space at the Butler airport.

"We see this as putting us in a position to satisfy aviation usage for the whole Cranberry-Wexford corridor," Mr. Bennett said.

"The gist is to move our entire fleet up a notch to larger aircraft. With the extra space, we can bring in some bigger planes, hangar them here and maintain them here." he said.

AirQuest currently owns a 15,000-square-foot hangar at the airport and leases two 10,000-square-foot hangars from the Airport Authority. It has a fleet of about 10 aircraft. He expects to add three or four aircraft within the next 18 months. He also expects to hire 10 to 15 more people. The company currently employs about 20.

Butler County Commissioner James Kennedy said the county is pleased to see growth at a county-supported airport.

"It's always good to see business growing here, but this is especially good for Butler County because this company provides a service to other local businesses,'' said Mr. Kennedy, who served as liaison to the airport authority board for 12 years until January, when Commissioner Dale Pinkerton took over. Mr. Kennedy also owns farm property near the airport in Penn.

Both Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Bennett credited the airport authority for extending the airport's runway by 800 feet in 2006 to 4,805 feet, which allows larger aircraft to land there.