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FlyDubai Diaries · Day 4 · Multan → Dubai

Tail to Tail: Our Flydubai Winglet and the PIA 777 at Multan Airport

Two airlines, two very different stories — sharing one busy apron for a few minutes, seen from the best seat in the house.

There is a moment at every airport, just before departure, when the whole journey hangs in the air. This morning at Multan Airport, I found mine through the scratched plastic of the window seat: in the foreground, the graceful curve of our Flydubai 737's winglet, and right behind it, the tall, proud tail of a Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 777, being readied for her own journey. Two airlines, two completely different stories — and for a few minutes, tail to tail on the same apron.

1The Shape in the Foreground: Why Winglets Matter

Before we talk about the giants on the ramp, let's talk about the little curve stealing the show in the foreground of the video. That upward sweep at the end of our Flydubai 737's wing is called a winglet — and it's not decoration. As a wing moves through the air, high-pressure air under the wing tries to escape around the wingtip and roll over the top, creating swirling vortices called wingtip vortices. Those vortices create drag — wasted energy that the engines have to fight against for the whole flight.

A winglet works like a fence for that escaping air. By curling the wingtip upward, it breaks up the vortex and recovers some of the energy that would otherwise be lost. The result is measurably less drag, lower fuel burn, and a slightly quieter ride. For a Boeing 737, winglets can cut fuel consumption by a few percent on every sector — and on a route like Multan to Dubai, flown several times a week by a whole fleet, that saving turns into millions of dollars a year.

Window-seat fact: the tall swept winglets on the 737 aren't one piece of kit — different generations of the aircraft carry different styles, from the original blended winglet to the taller split-scimitar design with an extra downward blade. Spotters learn to read an aircraft's age and model from the wingtip alone.

So next time you're at the window, look at that wingtip for a moment. It's doing quiet, invisible work for you from pushback to touchdown — turning wasted turbulence into saved fuel. This morning, ours happened to be framing the most photogenic neighbor on the apron.

2The Giant Behind: Pakistan's Own Boeing 777

Rising behind our winglet, the PIA Boeing 777's tail fin cut into the morning sky like a monument. The 777 is Pakistan's long-haul workhorse — the widebody that connects the country's airports to distant destinations that a narrowbody simply cannot reach nonstop. And standing beside a 737, it looks enormous for a reason: the 777 is roughly twice the wingspan of the 737, carries well over double the passengers, and its engines are among the largest ever bolted onto an airliner.

Boarding was underway while we watched — mobile stairs against the side, service vehicles clustered around the belly, the whole choreography of a widebody turnaround in motion. There's a reason widebodies pull a crowd at the terminal window: every movement around them is bigger, louder, and more deliberate. Catering trucks arrive in pairs. Fuel uplift is measured in the tens of thousands of liters. And when a 777 finally moves, you feel it in your chest before you hear it.

From the window seat: the Flydubai 737 winglet curves into frame while the PIA Boeing 777's tail rises on the apron behind it. (AI-generated illustration)

3Two Aircraft, Two Stories: 737 vs 777

Parked side by side this morning, our two jets told the story of modern aviation in a single frame. The Boeing 737 is the world's most-built airliner — a single-aisle workhorse built for short and medium hops like Multan to Dubai, turning around fast and flying again within the hour. The Boeing 777 is the long-haul queen of the fleet — twin-aisle, ultra-long range, the machine that makes the world's longest nonstop flights possible.

737Our Flydubai jet — single aisle, built for routes like Multan → Dubai

777PIA's widebody — twin aisle, built for long-haul duty

What struck me most was the contrast in purpose. The 737 in the foreground was about to carry us a few hours across the Gulf — efficient, nimble, routine. The 777 behind it was being prepared for something grander: the kind of journey measured in half-days and ocean crossings. Same apron, same morning, two entirely different definitions of "flying far."

Moments like this are why I always book the window seat. Not for the clouds or the sunsets — though those are lovely — but for the machines. Airports are museums that happen to fly, and the best gallery in the building is a scratched oval of plastic at seat A.

4Reading the Apron: A Window-Seat Spotter's Guide

You don't need to be an aviation expert to read an apron like a book. From any departure window, here's what to look for:

🛬 Tails tell the story

Aircraft tails are the biggest, most readable canvas on any airframe. From a distance, the height and shape of a tail fin will tell you the aircraft's class: the 777's towering stabilizer is unmistakable, and once you've seen it beside a 737's modest fin, you'll never confuse the two again.

🔧 Ground activity reveals intent

Mobile stairs at the door means boarding is underway. Catering trucks at the rear, fuel bowsers under the wing, baggage loaders at the hold — each vehicle is a chapter in the turnaround story. An aircraft surrounded by vehicles is about to fly; a quiet one is waiting its turn.

🎨 Livery is the giveaway

Tail liveries are how airlines say their name at a distance. The PIA mark on that 777 — the national carrier's colors on the country's flagship widebody — needs no introduction at Multan. Recognizing liveries turns a generic "plane at the gate" into a named story you can follow.

"Airports are museums that happen to fly — and the best gallery in the building is the window at seat A."

5Multan Airport: A Front-Row Seat

Multan International Airport rewards window-seat spotters more than most people expect. It's a compact field — you can take in the whole working apron from one seat — and mornings like this one put domestic operations on full display. PIA widebodies and Flydubai's 737s sharing the same concrete: that's the modern story of Pakistani aviation in one photograph.

The airport sits on the route map between Pakistan's heartland and the Gulf, and that geography shapes everything you see from the window. Aircraft bound for Dubai, Sharjah, and beyond line up beside the domestic backbone — a mix you don't always get at the biggest hubs, where widebodies and narrowbodies tend to hide in their own corners.

The workhorse in the foreground: a 737 winglet catching the morning light. (AI-generated illustration)

6Why This Frame Stays With You

Minutes after this video was filmed, the engines started, the cabin lights dimmed, and we taxied away from the stand. The 777 stayed behind in our window, shrinking in the frame as we rolled toward the runway — still there, still being readied, still writing its own story while ours began.

That's the quiet magic of departure mornings. For a few minutes, your journey and someone else's cross on the same piece of concrete, and the window seat lets you watch both at once. The winglet carried us to Dubai; the tail behind it carried somebody else to somewhere grander. Neither of us knew where — but for a moment, tail to tail, we shared the sky's waiting room.

Book the wing seat for apron action: seats over or behind the wing give you the winglet in the frame and the best view of neighboring stands.

Clean the window (gently): a soft microfiber cloth on the inside pane before pushback makes a real difference in video clarity.

Film the departure window, not the whole flight: the richest spotting moments happen between boarding and taxi-out — that's when the apron is alive.

Learn one silhouette per trip: pick the aircraft beside you and memorize its tail shape. Over a few flights, you'll read aprons like a native.

Follow the Journey ✈️

More window-seat aviation stories from Explore With Sarim — every flight, every airport, every tail on the ramp.

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