You mean Business Elite on DL right? Business First is CO's fine product!

My actual limited understanding is that 17 inches is a "relatively standard" coach/ economy seat width.

According to a new posting at their website, as noted by beckles, it is actually a full 18.5 inches wide- at least on a 767-300ER series aircraft. This does not concur with the independent OAG rating published late last year. I'd wrote/emailed the author of the OAG article and DL twice, sending them a copy of the thread but received no answer as of yet.

See: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum21/HTML/000431.html

Personally, I fell much of the apparent discrepancy comes from the actual manner in which these measurements are taken by the various companies and those agencies evaluating them. Everyone wants to put their "data" in the best possible light and so measures accordingly! Thus, we end up trying to compare apples and oranges. It seems safe to say, IMHO however, that DL has among the more minimal (combined BC/FC cabin) seat widths in the industry.

BTW- JetBlue, the new low-fare airline that started operations between JFK and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is stressing comfort in its inaugural ads. A billboard here says: "A new airline that's cheap and comfortable? Sure and I'm dating the tooth fairy."

The new discount carrier says all its seats are 18.5 inches wide, compared with the standard 17 inches in most airline coach sections. The distance between rows is also slightly greater than the industry standard. that is at least the old (pre UA & AA moves)
standard!