The idea that there are enough pax daily to support a 777 to the Middle East is questionable
I would have said the same 10 years ago about Newcastle-upon-Tyne yet today Emirates operates two daily returns, despite the abundance of options in Edinburgh ( no more distant than Belfast - Dublin ) and Glasgow.
Meanwhile Dublin has four dailies to the UAE and has Qatar coming on-stream too. The ME3 make their own market.
And InvestNI is pushing very hard for NI businesses to open-up to the Middle East, currently the roadshows have to trapse through Dublin to reach the conferences which is laughable.