"The inauguration flight to Beijing will take place on March 30, 2008," reads the statement. "As of today [August 9] it is possible to book tickets on route Warsaw-Beijing-Warsaw."

LOT hopes the re-opening of the route, with four scheduled flights a week, will allow the firm to expand its long-distance network and profit from increased air travel between Europe and Asia.

"The beginning of flights to Beijing is a first step towards enlargement of the long-distance destination network in the eastern direction," LOT CEO Piotr Siennicki said as quoted in the statement.

"Due to stronger economic contacts between the Asian states and Poland and the whole of Europe and more tourist travel to that area, the Far East is a natural direction for LOT." LOT also hopes that the route will help Warsaw airport become a regional hub. "We would like Warsaw airport to become, in several years, a significant hub linking West and East," Siennicki said.

LOT will offer four flights a week: on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from Warsaw and on Mondays Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from Beijing. LOT plans to operate mainly Boeing 767 on the route, although these will be replaced with B787 Dreamliner from the fall of 2008.

"B787 airplanes will make it easier for us to enter the Asian markets," Siennicki said. "Due to that we are also conducting analyses of other directions. Maybe in the near future we will be able to begin flights to Seoul, Hanoi or Tokyo."