The first direct 14-hour flight from Luanda's Fourth of February Airport to Beijing's Capital International Airport left on Saturday.

"The flight will run twice a week on a Boeing 777-200 ER," said a spokesman for TAAG, Angola's national airline.

It is being launched on a charter basis but if the market reacts positively, we'll pass to a scheduled service," he added.

Chinese money and manpower have played a key role in the reconstruction of Angola since the end of its 27-year civil war in 2002. Tens of thousands of Chinese workers are employed on building and roads projects across the west African country.

Last year more than 22,000 Angolan visas were issued to Chinese passport holders.

Credit lines from China to the former Portuguese colony are believed to exceed four billion US dollars.

Many of these loans are oil-backed and Angola is now China's largest supplier of crude oil.

"The opening of a direct air link has been planned for a while -- and is needed because of all the Chinese construction workers in Angola," said Alex Vines, head of the Africa Programme at the London-based thinktank Chatham House.

"As long as large Chinese construction projects continue in Angola, a direct air link between China and Angola will be profitable."

The new Luanda to Beijing route comes in the same week TAAG announced it was halting flights to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Pointe Noire in Congo (Brazzaville).

Citing "serious safety concerns," the European Union last month renewed its ban on TAAG flights and extended the restrictions to all Angolan Airlines.

The Angolan government responded by sacking TAAG's board and creating a commission to run the airline and investigate the safety issues.

It was also revealed that TAAG had lost 70 million dollars in the last year and was ranked 122 in a list of 124 world airlines.

Angolan Transport Minister Augusto Tomas said: "It is important that TAAG's performance is in line with Angola's current economic development."

Angola is one of the world's fastest-growing economies and has overtaken Nigeria as sub-Saharan Africa's largest oil producer with Luanda growing as key destination for many international airlines.

Lufthansa, British Airways, Brussels Air, Air France, Portugal's TAP and South African Airways (SAA) are just some of the major carriers running flights in and out of the country.

Flights are usually full and often overbooked. One-way tickets can sell for up to 5,000 dollars on some routes due to the demand from the growing expatriate community of oil and construction workers enjoying Angola's post-war boom.

Lufthansa spokeswoman Karin Webr said: "In terms of revenue, this is one of our best performing flights, and there is certainly a potential to increase the frequency of the flight to more than once a week."

"As well as the oil traffic, we are seeing a demand from the Asian market using Frankfurt to transfer into Luanda from China and other parts of the region."

Next year Delta hopes to become the first American airline to run a scheduled service from the United States.

A company spokeswoman confirmed the flight was awaiting approval from the Angolan government but the plan was to operate from Atlanta to Luanda, via Cape Verde.

Thousands of Americans work in Angola for oil companies such as Exxon Mobile, Chevron and BP and there is also a large diplomatic and NGO presence in the country.

Currently the only direct route to the United States is via a charter service limited to oil workers and their families.

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