The Airbus A340 is a long-range four-engine wide-body commercial passenger airliner manufactured by Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS. It seats between 261 and 380 passengers, and has a range between 6,700 and 9,000 NM. It is similar in design to the twin-engine A330. Initial A340 versions share the fuselage and wing of the A330 while later models are longer and have larger wings.

The A340 incorporates high-technology features such as fully digital fly-by-wire flight control system. It also uses joysticks instead of yokes, with one joystick to the left of the pilot and one to the right of the co-pilot. The A340's flight deck is highly similar to the A320's, and employs a common pilot rating with the A330. This enables A330/A340 flight crews to fly A320s and vice-versa with minimal extra training. This saves costs for airlines that operate both aircraft families. The cockpit also features CRT-based glass cockpit displays on the A340-200 and A340-300