Gulfstream Aerospace views India as a long-term growth market for its business jets, regional senior vice president of international sales for South America and the Far East Roger Sperry said yesterday at India Aviation 2012. Gulfstream is displaying a midsize G150 and large-cabin G450 at the show, which is being held in Hyderabad until Sunday.

“Gulfstream has been part of the India market for more than two decades,” said Sperry. “Our market in the Asia-Pacific has been our fastest growing of recent years, today accounting for 27 percent of our aircraft order backlog. We’ve been moving more product support resources into the region to support today’s operators and position ourselves for growth.”

On the product support front, the company announced at the show that it will soon be basing a parts manager in India to oversee parts storage and distribution in the country. Gulfstream maintains major parts bases in the region, including Dubai and Hong Kong.

Regarding the state of business aviation in India, Sperry said, “We are here to promote Gulfstream, but equally to promote the concept that business aviation builds businesses, particularly in a globalized economy.” There are currently 20 Gulfstream jets based in India and 175 in the Asia-Pacific region, the latter up from 27 a decade ago.