A potential January 1st reopening date is pie in the sky, as new routes and airlines would need to have already been announced by now if it was to be a successful launch.
It would just take one airline to open a base and the airport would have a transformed outlook rather than the understandable gloom and doom that dominates this thread in recent months.
I can't see it being Easyjet, as they are in retreat mode after spending many years at Southend and I can't see it being Ryanair, as they didn't hang around despite the original big promises.
That leaves Wizz as the only big boy so maybe that is the airports best hope. The next question is can SEN afford to have a Wizz base as they won't be too keen to pay for the privilege of operating on the east coast for London. Maybe 4 rotations a day to maximise revenue? Sorry Guv, we close the terminal at night. Ouch!