You don't actually think that the airport actually owed that amount of money to BB in terms of unpaid invoices etc. do you all?
It's all a bit of creative accounting
BB set up a company to operate the airport it owns,
So the operating company would have been charged rent for the facility
The wages will have been paid via another part of the BB group as would HR services and a number of other services, so that will have accounted for another part of what is owed.
But end of the day it will have been all on paper, not as "real" money and just parts of BB owing other parts of BB virtual debt!
Of course the BB group can then adjust the debts owing to show the facility to either make a profit or a loss!
So BB will now be able to write off a huge virtual debt from the books so pay much less tax and no doubt go away happy!
Look at some of the figures here
BBC News - Blackpool Airport to reopen as airfield for small aircraft
Blackpool Airport Ltd, the Balfour Beatty company that ran the airport, owes creditors about £35m, a report by liquidators shows.
External companies and groups are owed £2.1m, including £10,500 to Blackpool Council and £168,672 to Fylde Borough Council.
The staff redundancy bill totals more than £4.3m but the report estimates that only £528,244 will be available to pay towards this cost.
The government will have to cover outstanding staff costs from the National Insurance Fund.
Balfour Beatty faces a loss of around £19m.
The company in charge of liquidation, Zolfo Cooper, revealed around £28.6m of the debt is owed to other Balfour Beatty companies.
But this can be offset against other internal funds, meaning the final cost to the company is reduced to £19m. Balfour Beatty declined to comment on the figures.
The report estimates Blackpool Airport Ltd's assets are £562,193.
This covers the amount owed to preferential creditors and the remaining £528,244 will be put towards paying unsecured creditors.
But this would leave outstanding debts totalling £34.5m not covered under the settlement outlined by liquidators.
(some of the utility companies tried it on after privatisation to remove "profit" from the regulated sides of the businesses. The regulators caught them out and fined them huge amounts)
From the figures quoted in the BBC the actual value of equipment owned by the operating company is put at around £500,000.
The rest is fixtures and fittings and are owned by the part of BB that owns fixtures, fittings and land. Face it, in another way, it means that if one part of BB ends up in liquidation the fixed assets can't be touched as they are owned by another company.
Just as has occurred.
Then of course another company can be set up, debt free to operate those assets.