STN is close to London has London in its name and is a far superior airport both airside and landside
You obviously haven't been to STN recently?
I have had the mispleasure of traveling through STN twice since August 2015, and I would go as far to say I'd rather use T3 at MAN, and I'm not a fan of T3 either. I just hope that as STN has just been remodelled by MAG, it isn't a sign of what the expansion of T2 will look.
In terms of new routes, get ready for a period of announcements from about 2 weeks from now. We should be having 2-3 routes confirmed that we know of, and at least 3 new routes that have not been discussed on here to my knowledge.
We may not have had the headline grabbing news that other airports drawing in multiple new airlines have enjoyed, but, compared to a few airports, our growth will outstrip them by a large degree.
I know we are 5 days in already, but, Bring on 2016!