Space enough for two. Entertainment options – up to 1000. Toys and tools – office applications within the entertainment. Yeoh Siew Hoon reports on SIA's new cabin, available on the B777-300ER from December.

So what's so great about the new cabin products unveiled by Singapore Airlines last week that it says will bring back the romance of travel?

Well, I am not sure about romance because if you consider that there will soon be 1,000 entertainment options and that the new system comes with a suite of office applications that will enable you to work without a laptop, you probably won't have any time for romance inflight.

But what I found romantic are that the business class and first class seats are big and wide enough for two people to snuggle and cuddle up to each other.

The new first class is impressive – 35 inches seat width, nearly a metre. It will be the largest in the sky and it has so many options for different positions you could really have fun with it. It does all the other tricks as well – unfolds into a flat bed so you can sleep like a baby. You can also enjoy breakfast in bed or curl back with a good book or lie back.

Plus there'll only be eight seats in the first class cabin on the B77-300ER which will be the first aircraft to feature the new products.

The business class has a seat width of 76cm, or 30 inches. When I sat in it, I felt cocooned, yet lost in it. SIA says it is 50% wider than British Airways Business Class seat and 12% wider than its own existing Spacebed with armrests down.

Whatever the dimensions, you definitely feel you've got lots of space. The seat can be converted into a flat bed or an office. You've got a nice side table for the laptop, which I liked. But then perhaps I won't need to bring my laptop onboard anymore – the office applications include word processing, spreadsheet and presentations.

All you need to bring is your thumb drive, plug it in and you're away. The handset which works as the keyboard takes some getting used to – but I am told that if you use the Blackberry, you may have an advantage.

I found it hard getting used to it though and frankly think it has limitations - for example, I can't see myself writing this column on it.

The business class is configured forward facing, four abreast, 1-2-1, which means everyone gets an aisle seat.

It's never easy to get dewy-eyed over economy class but SIA's new seats do offer more space and legroom. The handset is now installed on the seatback which means you don't have to twist your arm to get at it. There's a new seat recline mechanism to ensure that when the person in front of you reclines their seat, you don't get squashed.

All in, SIA spent US$360 million on the design programme which took four years from conceptualization to design and prototype testing. Customer workshops were conducted in New York, London and Singapore.

"These innovations will set the new direction for the Singapore Airlines product and service offering and redefine what even the most frequent traveler has come to expect of premium air travel," said Bey Soo Khiang, senior executive vice president, operations and services.

The new cabins will be available on the new B777-300ER firstly to Paris and Zurich, sometime December.

With such wide seats in business and first class, journalists were curious as to what would happen if couples decided to spend the whole night snuggled up together on one seat?

To which SIA's executive vice president, marketing and the regions, Huang Cheng Eng, said, "The idea of the seat is to give comfort to the individual, not for sharing."

Still I can't see cabin attendants forcibly ejecting people from their seats should couples wish to cuddle up with each other.

After all, they did say it's about the romance of travel, right?

The SHY Report
A regular column on news, trends and issues in the hospitality industry by one of Asia's most respected travel editors and commentators, Yeoh Siew Hoon.

Siew Hoon, who has covered the tourism industry in Asia/Pacific for the past 20 years, runs SHY Ventures Pte Ltd. Her company's mission is "Content, Communication, Connection".

She is a writer, speaker, facilitator, trainer and events producer. She is also an author, having published "Around Asia In 1 Hr: Tales of Condoms, Chillies & Curries". Her motto is ‘free to do, and be'.

Contacts: Tel: 65-63424934, Mobile: 65-96801460

Yeoh Siew Hoon's other writings can be found at www.thetransitcafe.com. Get your weekly cuppa of news, gossip, humour and opinion at Travel's Busiest Junction.