Istanbul Airshow - resilience and optimism as show opens

There had been questions about whether the show would ever go ahead following the a series of incidents in Turkey.

Feyzan Erel from show organiser Mint, said "After Turkey's downing of a Russian war plane last November, everything starting deterioraing very fast. The economic downturn was followed by bombings - the worst on our side was the attack on Ataturk Airport" This was followed by an attempted coup against the Turkish president in July..

"As the organiser we had to make a quick decision - either cancel everything or go on despite the difficulties,." Erel said.

"After talking to the government and to our sponsors, we decided the show must go on," he said."Turkey is at a historical turning point. We had to utilse all the power we had for the airshow, despite some of the companies seeing "Turkey to have a 'terror risk'. Although they had an agreement, they gave up.

"Despite everything we are hopeful about the future This country and its aviation future willgo on to progress consistantly." Erel said.

While aircraft on the static are down on the 2014 event, the exhibition hall was packed - particularly with the growing Turkish supply chain and a number of international exhibitors such as Boeing, Airbus, Dassault and Leonardo who continued to support the event.

Ilker Ayci, chairman of Turkish Airlines takes the stage at today's opening