Here’s the Pitch: Not Enough Legroom for Airline Coach Passengers : Seating: According to a Consumer Reports survey, Delta rates lowest in comfort for its new MD-11s. Midwest Express and Alaska Airlines get good marks.

The lowly coach passenger, flying in the rear of the plane, is unhappy and grumbling about the cramped seating provided by most airlines, according to a survey conducted by the Consumer Reports Travel Letter. “By a wide margin, seat comfort is the area where airlines do the worst for their passengers,” the survey concluded.

If these results don’t surprise you--after all, you’re the one pinched into that tight seat on a transcontinental flight--apparently some of the airline executives themselves are bewildered by the findings. When asked to rate the importance of seating comfort, Consumer Reports says, the airline execs gave comfort only 7.1 points out of a total of 100. By comparison, on-time arrivals and departures earned 21.5 points.

“Obviously,” speculates the often testy but authoritative newsletter, “few--if any--of them had sat in a coach/economy middle seat for a four-hour flight.” And there’s this thought, which may not bode well for travelers: “. . . airline honchos who are so out of touch with passenger problems aren’t apt to remedy them.”

In the survey, more than half the passengers who responded rated coach-class seating “less than good,” says the 12-page newsletter, a monthly publication of the Consumers Union. “They were much more unhappy with airline seating than with any other quality factor.”

In-flight roominess, or the lack of it, varies by airline and type of aircraft. Among the real “cattle cars” to be avoided, as cited by Consumer Reports, are the brand-new wide-bodied MD-11s flown by Delta Air Lines. Compared with other seating configurations, the aircraft rated at the bottom of the publication’s annual comfort index, printed in conjunction with the passenger survey.

In Delta’s defense, spokesman Neil Monroe points out that the airline currently is flying only two MD-11s--on its Orlando-Los Angeles-Tokyo route--and both are leased. When Delta begins to take possession of its own planes next year, the seating arrangements are scheduled to be roomier. In the leased planes, there are 10 seats per row; Delta plans to install only nine in a row. Meanwhile, just before the index appeared, Delta removed two rows of seats from the leased planes to provide more legroom.

Monroe questions the validity of the index, based as it is on a comparison of figures. “You can’t judge passenger comfort by looking at the numbers. The numbers don’t take into account the design of the seats.”

Still, no one can challenge the figures that put the spacious planes of Midwest Express at the top of the comfort index. A small Milwaukee-based airline serving Washington, the Midwest and California, the carrier provides the equivalent of first-class seating for all passengers at competitive coach-class fares, says Consumer Reports. In its cabins, each row has two roomy seats on each side of the aisle instead of the typical two-three or three-three configuration of other airlines.

Alaska Airlines is also spotlighted as “the only sizable line with consistently roomier-than-average coach seating.”

In terms of aircraft, passengers are apt to enjoy a roomier flight on a wide-bodied Boeing 767 than on any other plane, Consumer Reports says. This is because the standard configuration on a 767, now in transcontinental and transatlantic service, is a generous two-three-two, which means your chances of getting the dreaded middle seat are substantially reduced. Among other wide-bodied planes, most DC-10s, A-300/310s and L-1011s are “above average” in roominess. Among narrow-bodied planes, the DC-9s and MD-80s are rated more comfortable than 727s and 737s.

Schedules and fares, of course, are primary considerations when choosing a flight. But if there is little difference in what two airlines are offering, you should book on the one that is flying planes with the most comfortable seating, the newsletter advises.

The width of a coach seat or the legroom are not necessarily limited by the type of aircraft, so complaining to an airline could result in changes for the better. “When each airline orders new planes or refurbishes old ones,” says Consumer Reports, “the airline decides how wide the seats will be and how much legroom will be provided.”

Of course, the airlines are fully conscious that the more seats they put on a plane, the greater its earning potential. And, indeed, the enhanced seating capacity may be a factor in keeping fares lower than they might be.

To establish its comfort index, Consumer Reports compares three factors: seat pitch, the legroom between rows; seat width, measured at the armrest level, and configuration--how many seats on each side of the aisle. Statistics were obtained for 49 U.S. and foreign airlines flying 200 different types of aircraft.

On a scale in which any aircraft rated at 100 or above is considered comfortable, the MD-80s and DC-9s of Midwest Express attain a score of 105 based on the fact that coach seats are 24 inches wide, there is 34 inches of legroom, and seating is a desirable two-two configuration. Delta’s leased MD-11s score only 64--seats are listed as 18.5 inches wide, legroom is 31 inches (before Delta removed two rows of seats), and the current configuration is three-four-three, which the newsletter considers “undesirable.”

Because a typical coach seat is so narrow and legroom so limited, even a small difference in seat dimensions “can make a big difference in how well you endure a flight,” says the newsletter. In the study, seat width in coach class ranges from 18.5 to 24 inches. Legroom ranges from 31 to 34 inches, except for MGM Grand at 38 inches. The specialty airline operates between Los Angeles and New York.

Consumer Reports chastises El Al of Israel; SAS, the Scandinavian airline, and Martinair, a Dutch charter line, because they have reduced the potential roominess of their 767s by installing seats with tight legroom. Respectively, their 767s score 71, 73 and 67 on the comfort index. And it’s thumbs down, too, for 767 seats that are “narrower-than-necessary” on Air Canada (76 on the comfort index), Air New Zealand (76), Canadian International (78) and Qantas, the Australian airline (76).

With its 767s, Delta scores relatively high with an 81, and American Airlines, TWA, USAir and United Airlines each earn a 78.

A score of 76 and above is regarded as “marginally acceptable”; 71 to 75 is “noticeably crowded,” and 67 to 70 is “seriously cramped.” A score of 66 or under is “a miserable cattle car.” Sadly, at least 15 airlines have one or more types of planes in this category. The guilty aircraft mostly are 737s, 727s and 757s.

Copies of the airline seating comfort index, which appeared in the September issue of Consumer Reports Travel Letter, can be obtained for $5 from the Circulation Director, Consumer Reports Travel Letter, 101 Truman Ave., Yonkers, N.Y. 10703-1057, (800) 999-7959.