SAN FRANCISCO - Chinese aviation market will become the largest in the world, said Stan Deal, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, on Wednesday.

"While the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the momentum, we believe the Chinese aviation market will return to above-trend growth in the long term and eventually become the largest in the world." Deal said in a written interview with Xinhua.

"For perspective, China has added more capacity in the past 10 years than the total of the next six fastest-growing emerging markets, including India, Russia and Brazil," Deal said, reaffirming Boeing's commitment to supporting and enabling this growth as a key partner in the Chinese aviation ecosystem.

"Chinese airlines today are among the world's largest and productive. In many ways, Air China, China Southern, China Eastern and Hainan are no longer Chinese airlines, they are global carriers that help set the industry standard for international operations, in-flight service, and passenger experience. They also lead a class of emerging carriers that together will make China the world's largest commercial aviation market," he added.

Deal said that the aviation industry will be instrumental in enabling growth within the country and facilitating commerce and cultural exchange to all corners of the globe.

From Boeing's perspective, he said, while longer international flights will be slower to return to pre-COVID-19 levels, overall the aviation industry will continue to enable global commerce and cultural exchange by efficiently transporting people and products to locations large, small and everywhere in between.

In Deal's eyes, the COVID-19 pandemic is unlikely to reverse the trend of globalization as it has been a powerful force for growth and development, while the new challenge is how to quickly balance the benefits of globalization and manage the potential consequences. "This is the new normal for our industry and for our world."

"We believe China will continue to play an essential role in the global economy," he noted.