Singapore Airlines (SIA) is investigating whether it can sell MP3 music files through its newest Krisworld in-flight entertainment system.

The system, installed on the A380 superjumbo due to start flying to Sydney towards end of the month, has USB ports in all classes, allowing passengers to connect MP3 players and other peripheral devices such as flash drives.

Singapore Airlines senior vice-president of products and services Yap Kim Wah said the new system was capable of storing more than 700 CDs or between 7000 and 8000 songs on the system's hard drive.

But he said a problem was that the airline did not own the copyright. "We are looking at this aspect and if that can be done and it is feasible, that is one of the directions we will take," he said.

The airline's new eX2 system offers more than 1000 movie, music, gaming, educational and office productivity options on widescreen, high resolution LCDs.

Office applications on the system allow people to edit spreadsheets and word processor documents and store them on a USB drive.

Officials said they would also look at bringing back internet connectivity if they could find a way of convincing passengers to pay for it.

Singapore Airlines was one of the airlines to offer Boeing's Connexion internet access, but that system was shut down by the US aerospace giant after it failed to make enough money.

SIA's research found that passengers liked the option of being able to connect to the internet but were not prepared to pay enough to make it viable.