PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron is opening the Paris Air Show from the skies.

Macron landed Monday at the Bourget airfield in an Airbus A400-M military transport plane to launch the aviation showcase, where the latest Boeing and Airbus passenger jets will vie for attention with an F-35 warplane, drones and other and high-tech hardware.

Macron, trying to raise his international profile, appears to have chosen the A400-M to give a boost of confidence to the long-troubled European military transporter project.

Thousands are expected at the biennial aviation and defense industry gathering this week.

The industry is eager to show off its wares after a string of public relations embarrassments recently — from the United Airlines' passenger getting dragged off a flight to British Airways' massive outage.