Forgive my perhaps total ignorance, but really why Not Qatar from Northern Ireland??
Despite the obvious hurdles of the occasional lunar spectacles of fleg waving and bottle throwing which the media so helpfully shy away from covering in glorious techno colour & the bin lid dummy-spitting up on the hill and so forth,
afaik Etihad, Emirates and Turkish all employ dedicated sales resources in the NI market. Are they doing that coz they're totally clueless about where business is coming from??
And, whether people like to believe it or not Ireland is still a small, recently badly struggling economy out floating in the Atlantic off Europe. There is not the genuine base in the economy of London or other major capitals, or even Manchester or Birmingham.
So why would Qatar want to try to establish themselves as very much the last of the four Asian hub carriers from DUB at a time when Etihad have seen enough of the mad land-grab of the last few years and are radically cutting back?
Is a free run at the northern market with a sensible size of aircraft to mop up local business which clearly the other three are all clamouring to court not a reasonably attractive opportunity?
You have to presume if QR managers have actually mentioned Belfast in media coverage that this thought has at least crossed their mind n all.