Put very simply, “pitch” is knee room.

To elaborate… “pitch” as it refers to seats on an airplane, means the distance from one point of a seat to the exact same point on the seat directly in front of it. So it’s a good indicator of how closely together rows are situated.

Each airline configures seats on a particular plane type the way it wants. So not all A330s or B747s, for example, will have the same “pitch” or space between them from airline to airline—and in fact, sometimes from plane to plane. There are several versions of 737s, 330s, 757s, 340s, etc. and within American Airlines, for example, there might be an inch difference between two otherwise similar aircraft types.

www.seatguru.com is an excellent resource to see pitch and width of many airlines—divided by plane type. www.seatexpert.com is similar.

Most airlines serving transatlantic routes between Europe and North America have seating configured at 31 to 32 inches pitch in economy class. Economy extra or “plus” usually has 4 to 5 inches more pitch.

Sounds like you quoted JetBlue — 36” first 11 rows, then 34” thereafter. That, plus comfy all-leather seating, plus 24 channel live DirecTV at each seat gives them a huge product advantage. Now we just need a similar product on transatlantic routes, at JetBlue prices….

Thanks don, excellant information. What about the width of a seat. Is it the same for all airlines?
 
Yes you got it right, Its JetBlue.
 
What is the norm for a business class and a first class on the pitch?

Seat widths also vary. Most N.A.-Europe flights, airlines typically have seats between 17 and 18 inches wide. A few, like Air France and Delta, have about 18.5 width if I recall from SeatGuru, and 18.5 is max. width I think I’ve noticed there.

Business class varies a lot. The smallest I can recall is Icelandair, with only about 38” pitch, but with fairly wide business class seats (4 across instead of 6 across in economy class).

Some biz class now offer lie-flat seats. It depends on the airline. Check Seatguru to get more stats on width and pitch in biz. and econ. classes per airline and aircraft type.