Hyderabad, March 4 (IANS) Boeing said Thursday that the Indian market would need 1,000 commercial jets worth $100 billion (Rs.5 lakh crore) in the next 20 years.

Currently, Indian air operators own around 380 commercial jets.

'According to our market outlook for 2009, India's domestic passenger traffic last year reached 43.8 million, the highest in Indian history. This forecasts a strong future for India's growing aviation market,' Dinesh Keskar, president of Boeing India, told reporters on the sidelines of the air show here.

India Aviation Show 2010 is being organised jointly by the civil aviation ministry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).

Boeing has a backlog of 85 aircraft in India from its buyers Air India, Jet Airways and SpiceJet. Jet Airways has also purchased 10 Boeing 787s.

The Boeing sees recovery of the aviation market in India.

'There is strength and resilience in India's commercial aviation sector both in the near and long term. If you take a realistic and broad look at the Indian market, what resonates is that the future growth of air travel is among the greatest in the world.

'Air travel in India, tied closely to the country's economic growth, will show a compound growth of nearly 10 percent,' Keskar said.

Amid a dearth of orders at the air show, aircraft makers like Boeing and Airbus said the demand for new plane orders from India and worldwide was likely to remain more or less flat in 2010.

'We have nine aircraft lined up for Air India and SpiceJet. We are not expecting for any fresh orders this year,' Keskar told IANS earlier in the day.