Airlines are adding new routes. Here’s how you can save

By Benjamin Din, NerdWallet

Airlines are gearing up for their busy summer schedules, flying to new destinations and increasing frequencies to popular cities. They’re even starting to announce new fall routes.

For airfare deal hunters, that means new opportunities to travel somewhere for cheap. New flights are worth tracking, especially when airlines offer attractive deals to market their route announcements.

“This is really an opportunity where the airlines can make a grand entrance for a new route and really drum up excitement,” says Katy Nastro, a spokesperson for Going, a flight deals alert service.

Here’s how travelers can take advantage of new routes and the deals surrounding them.

Look for introductory fares

Summer schedules have been released for a while, and some carriers are already thinking ahead to fall. Delta has announced that it was launching flights from Atlanta to Marrakech, Morocco, in October 2025. (United Airlines started flying to Marrakech from Newark Liberty International Airport, its New York area hub, last year.)

Delta’s fall flights to Marrakech have been on sale for as low as $534 round trip. That’s well below the average price of about $950 for an itinerary that, up until now, has included connections, according to Going.

Keep an eye out as new flights or destinations are announced. If you are flexible about where to travel this year, you might be able to snag a cash or points discount as part of a new route promotion.

Budget carriers like Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines have also announced updates to their route networks. Earlier this month, Spirit announced it was adding service to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Columbia, South Carolina — moves that could help bring down airfares for these markets.

However, introductory fares are not necessarily the best deals. Use travel search tools to find out what have historically been considered cheap prices for a specific route.