Yep a lot of regionals have a lower height requirement, e.g. Eastern, Skywest, possibly NJS....
Emirates go by arm reach, if you can reach 212cm with no shoes then you're fine. I know a girl who was on the shorter side for Qf etc, but got in with EK because her arm reach was fine.
Wrt to Virgin having no ht req (assume talking Virgin Blue here?) on their application form it does ask that you meet a minimum height... so why then???