Hyderabad: President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday inaugurated the fifth edition of the India Aviation 2016 and the five-day biennial aviation show jointly organised by the Union Civil Aviation Ministry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) at the Begumpet airport.

About 25 countries are taking part in the India Aviation show, being held with the theme of Indian civil aviation sector: Potential as global manufacturing hub.

Leading aircraft and helicopter manufacturers such as Boeing, Airbus, Textron, AA Embraer, Gulfstream, Dassault, Agusta Westland, Bell Helicopters, Russian Helicopters are participating in the show. As many as 30 aircrafts, including small business jets and big aircrafts are on display.

These include B777 by Air India, Dornier by HAL, TAC-003 by Thrust Aircraft Co., MI-172 by Pawan Hans, A 350 by Qatar Airways, A0330-300 by Air Asia, Legacy 500, 650, Phenom 200 and 300 by Embraer, B-787 by Etihad, A380 by Emirates.

IndiGo is displaying A320 Neo, which recently made its debut in India and supposed to be the first eco-friendly and fuel efficient aircraft built by Airbus.

The first three days will be only for business visitors while on the last two days it will be thrown open to general public.

Chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Civil Aviation minister Ashok Gajapati Raju and several state ministers participated in the inaugural function.