The world-famous Dubai Airshow opened on a positive note on Sunday with Airbus, Rolls Royce and other aviation companies recording combined orders worth billions of dollars.

The announcements set a strong tone for the show which takes place amid one of the worst downturns in aviation history.

As stunt planes performed loops and dived in an aerial display above the Dubai Airport Expo, the business of selling during a recession unfolded in the exhibition halls and corporate chalets beneath.

Among those who attended the exhibition included His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-president and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Some industry executives had been worried that the business at the show, which runs for four days wouldn’t be nearly as good as it was the same time two years ago when Middle Eastern airlines went on a spending spree, bringing the event to  a new prominence.

But other participants at the airshow remained optimistic, stressing that the Middle East was the only region, aside from East Asia, that continues to grow with vigour in an otherwise stagnant industry.

In one of the biggest deals to take place, Britain’s Rolls-Royce said it had reached a total of $2 billion worth of deals to sell jet engines that would power new Airbus aircraft for Air China and Ethiopian Airlines.

Rolls-Royce valued the Air China order for Trent 700 engines at $1.5 billion, while Ethiopian’s purchases of Trent XWB engines were valued at $480 million.