Bangalore, Feb. 7 (PTI): US aircraft maker Boeing Corp has bid to sell 50 medium and long-range aircraft to Air-India and hopes to bag one of the big orders valued between $6 billion and $7 billion, a top Boeing official said here.

?It (the bid) was done in December. All the three aircraft makers are in the running for Air-India and we feel that there are compelling advantages that will hopefully result in a sale here,? Boeing vice-president Dinesh A. Keskar told reporters here today on the sidelines of the Aero India 2005 international seminar.

Boeing?s European rival Airbus last December said it was also in the race for the Air-India order expected to be one of the biggest aircraft deals in India, which both the majors are aggressive to win.

The 50 aircraft deal includes 35 firm sales and option to buy 15 more by Air-India, he said.

?The order value is significantly high somewhere between $6 billion and $7 billion, when you include both the firm and option sales,? he said.

Boeing has not made a headway in the Indian market, losing out to rival Airbus for the Indian Airlines, Air Deccan and Kingfisher Airline orders, but has a strong supporter in Jet and Sahara Airways.

?We haven?t really done well here, but with Jet, Sahara and new players we are in the game,? he said.

Big business scope

Boeing today revised upwards the potential business for aeroplanes in India up to $35 billion in the next 20 years citing, the high growth in passenger traffic, entry of private carriers and allowing them to fly on overseas routes.

?We are going to change the forecast as the earlier projection was based when liberalisation policy was not in place and private airlines were not allowed to fly on international routes. There is lot more business happening here,? Keskar said.