"India, next to China, is one of the big growth hubs for the aviation industry," said Tom Enders, chief executive of European aircraft maker, on Friday.

The remarks came as its US rival Boeing, which says India's expanding aviation sector need 1,150 commercial jets valued at $130 billion over 20 years, is set to reach a $5.8-billion deal with India, ahead of the US President Barack Obama's November visit to the country.

"Indian carriers want to keep a young dynamic fleet going. It might not be as big a market as it was in 2005 which saw a huge boom, but we will see a steady growth," said Airbus' India chief Kiran Rao, adding that the country would invest $138 billion in 1,032 planes over 20 years.

Separately, India's Dynatmatic Technologies, through a partnership with UK-based Spirit AeroSystems, will make all wing flap track beams for Airbus. The cooperation initiative is expected to generate more than $1 billion of work over 10 years.

Flap track beams are an intricate assembly of tracks that are connected to the wing and are instrumental in controlling the speed, direction and balance of the aircraft.

Dynamatic, which produces the beams at its newly built state-of-the art facility Prana in the Indian city of Bangalore, "will deliver 30 such parts in a month at the current rate of production", said S Dwarkanath, head of international co-operation, India and East Asia, at Airbus.

"The objective of the new agreement is to expand Airbus' manufacturing base into various baskets as its global market grows," he said, adding that the deal shows India is gradually moving up the value chain in aerospace manufacturing.

The flap track beam, earlier made by the UK's BAE Systems, is the second key part of the A320 to be outsourced to India.

As part of India's offset policy, Hindustan Aeronautics produces 34 doors each month for A320 aircraft. Every second A320 aircraft door is made in HAL's campus in Bangalore and shipped to Paris.

The country's offset policy requires foreign aerospace and defense firms getting contracts from Indian firms to engage local units for manufacturing.

Dynamatic, which began with making hydraulic gear pumps before diversifying into automobile and aerospace components, will bid for making other parts for the A320 as also for long-range aircraft such as A330 and A350, said Toby Malhoutra, managing director and chief executive of the company.

Airbus, which also avails engineering services of Mahindra Satyam for its aircraft, has a significant offset obligation as part of a 2006 deal with Air India for 43 A320 aircraft, costing around $2.2 billion. Nearly 180 Airbus aircraft are flown by Indian carriers, many of these being A320s.