Originally Posted by
robb
I'm not sure how the amount of aisle space per passenger is relevant to our comfort. That would be like crediting an airline with the legroom available in the galley and lavatories (dividing legth by number of rows).
The seat width is more like 17 - 18" in economy.
I don't see how you're going to find anyone to agree with you that the Embraer 170 is more comfortable than the 777, which is what your statistics suggest (and strongly so, I might add).
It would be better to look at seating width - but the access to aisles is indeed relevant.
E170, with 274 cm inside width, is more spacious than a Concorde (263 cm inside) or CRJ (257 cm inside), yet still has 4 seats abreast, and no middle seats.
Imagine a widebody with exactly twice the interior width of E170 - 216 inches - and 8 seats abreast. You could have exactly unchanged aisle and seat widths - but now you would have 2 middle seats in the centre. However, those middle seats do not have curving sidewall encroaching into personal space.
A300 is narrower than 216 inches. However, the width of B787 is almost exactly 216 inches. So, the comfort of 4 abreast 170 and 8 abreast 787 is similar.
But the airlines who have 8 abreast 787 are a minority - as are airlines who have the standard 8 abreast seating on 224 inch wide DC-10.
A coach seat is approximately 17-18 inch seatback plus 2 inch armrest - 19-20 inches total. 777 is about 15 inches wider than 787. It follows that an 9 abreast 777 is less comfortable than 8 abreast 787 - because all seats or aisles must be slightly narrower, and there are more middle seats.
But if a 9 abreast 777 is worse than 8 abreast 787, it also is worse than 4 abreast 170. QED.