SINGAPORE (May 21): New premium economy class seats will be available on Singapore Airlines services from August, following an US$80-million ($107-million) investment by the company, which is facing increasing competition from budget carriers and full-service airlines.

The new seats, which took two years to develop, were unveiled today.

Each seat has a width of either 18.5 or 19.5 inches, depending on the aircraft type, with an 8-inch recline and a seat pitch of 38 inches.

The seat comes with noise-cancelling headphones and a 13.3-inch full high-definition monitor.

Other features include full leather finishing, calf-rest, a foot-bar, individual in-seat power supply, two USB ports, personal in-seat reading light, and a cocktail table.

"The new cabin product is the culmination of two years of work, which included extensive research and focus group studies involving customers and our design partners," Mak Swee Wah, SIA's executive vice-president (commercial), said in a statement today.

The premium economy class will be progressively introduced on 19 Airbus A380s, 19 Boeing 777-300ERs and the first 20 Airbus A350s.

It will begin commercial service on Aug 9 from Singapore to Sydney, before being launched in other destinations such as Beijing, New Delhi, Hong Kong, Frankfurt and London, according to SIA.