Dubai from Belfast?! Using what? An islander with a few dozen tech stops on the way? If DUB can't support a DXB route, what chance BFS (or any other NI airport)?
Perhaps Uel should be concerning himself with the here and now. Pax numbers below 4million for the first time in God knows how long? BFS needs a new operator that will realistically bring new pax now, not pie in the sky pax in the future.
Whether the Spanish owners are to blame for the recent problems at BFS or not I don't know. However, the place obviously has issues that won't be sorted by the (non-)arrival of Emirates.