I very much doubt Peel will be concerned about some negative
PR.
Peel bought the airport because it was losing over £400k a year, with a £2 million overdraft and with no more money to fund operations. No-one else came in with a better offer, so £1 is not necessarily an unreasonable price for a business losing money, unsustainable debts and with just one offer on the table.
Any contract of sale will have a minimum price of £1 (or asset valued at £1 or more) as there has to be a consideration from the purchaser, even though that £1 never actually changes hands. I have sold a business in the past for £1, and never received the £1. It's perfectly normal.
The passenger numbers for SZD are interesting:
1998: 46,000
1999: 75,000
2000: 60,000
2001: 33,000
2002: 13,000
What would be different now to what happened pre-2002 (before the fire cover was reduced)? 75,000 passengers is not a viable figure.