India to be region's fastest-growing aviation market over 20-year forecast period: Boeing India chief

"Some of that growth is actually faster than 7 percent, then as the market matures it is slower but average is up to 7 percent over that time which creates a tremendous opportunity for all of us involved in Indian aviation to support that growth to not only passing your product in the domestic market but also in the international market," he further said.

India's per-day air passengers count crossed four lakh-mark in April, for the first time since the pandemic broke out. Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had, in March, claimed that the pre-COVID count of 415,000 passengers would be crossed "within the next year".

With the bulk of India's 1.4 billion-strong population yet to use air as the mode of travel, industry experts are optimistic about the country's aviation sector for the period to come. "Civil aviation of today will be tomorrow’s railways in terms of transport in India," Scindia had said at an event in March, adding, the country needs to "tap the potential".

Gupte, who is heading the India wing of aerospace major Boeing, is the latest to validate India's position for growth in the aviation sector. In June, Singapore Airlines' chief executive officer Goh Choon Phong told Bloomberg that India is "obviously a very important" growth area for the airline "because it’s going to be massive".