The A330 and A340 benefit from the advanced Airbus cockpit design, which receives high marks from the thousands of pilots who fly Airbus aircraft daily. Flight decks on both aircraft types are nearly identical, with differences limited primarily to the centre pedestal-mounted engine controls for the twin-engine A330 and the four-engine A340.

At the heart of the cockpit is the fly-by-wire system pioneered by Airbus. Its digital electronic flight controls improve handling and stability while reducing pilot workload.

The A330/A340 side-sticks – which replace the traditional centre-mounted control yokes used for decades on airliners – give optimum control inputs for the fly-by-wire system and create an open, uncluttered cockpit environment for the flight crew. As the same basic cockpit layout is used on the other Airbus fly-by-wire jetliners, it is easy for pilots to transition from the A330/A340 to the smaller A320 Family, and, in the future, to the 525-seat A380.