Why new airline routes matter to all travelers

There used to be a recurring skit on the old Saturday Night Live called, ‘You can’t get there from here.’

Ostensibly, it was to poke fun at New Englanders who often gave circuitous routes well traveling in their state.

But when an airline introduces a new route, don’t necessarily dismiss it just because you’re not going there or going through one of those cities, according to the travel website Going.com.

There are a variety of reasons why, the most important of which is the price of the fare.

It’s a simple formula tried and true in the business world. More competition on a route typically means lower fares. If you had the money, and you were just looking for the shortest distance between two points, more power to you. If you don’t mind a layover or a longer flight, this is for you. Flights with layovers are generally less expensive.

More competition, more options for travelers…it’s all a good thing for the traveler’s bank account.

As. Going.com points out by way of example, if you want to get to Europe from LAX you can choose from 23 different airlines, while from Atlanta there are only 15. So you’re going to see more deals out of LAX.

Going.com also points to the Greek Islands trick, “which involves focusing on getting to your continent of choice as cheaply as possible.”

More routes available help make this travel hack much more feasible.

How does it work?

Going.com says: You can do this by looking for the best deal from a nearby airport to your final destination (and then adding a short flight to get to that departure spot) or by nabbing a cheap flight from your destination across the ocean (and then connecting from your arrival spot to your final destination on a cheap regional flight).

So don’t dismiss new routes until you have a chance to check out their advantages.