jensdad - Sunderland Airfield was one of the most successful airfields of its size back in the day, and there was more than one location around Sunderland that was much better suited to a car manufacturing operation, so I don't think location would make a difference.
N707ZS - 500k is nothing to Peel, they have that kind of money to throw away, I don't understand accounting but I think I could be accurate in saying they probably made it a tax write-off?
Peel won't pull the plug on the airport because they can't, for reasons I'm not prepared to go into as it's been discussed to death on here, the terminal however, in my opinion, is doomed