It's an interesting call...

The article says an 8-abreast has 19" width, and 9 abreast is 17.2" width.

Continental has 17.9" on its other widebodies (777 and 767), and 17.2" on its narrow bodies (757, 37).

They love to talk about "consistency" across the product. Either way, they will be about 1" wider or 1" narrower than the current widebody coach product.

Here's where it gets more confusing...

A 777 can be configured 10 abreast in coach (a la Emirates) and have 17" width. However, CO opted to stick with 9 abreast and the wider config.

Question is will they want to maintain consistency across widebodies (which implies 8 across), or a bare minimum consistency (which implies 9 across).