"Scheduling" does not care!
When you are first hired as an airline pilot and go into training it is a time of intense preparation and high pressure when everything is unfamiliar and is accompanied by a very steep learning curve. Once you complete training and get out on the line your head is jammed full of emergency and normal procedures and you begin to get it all sorted out flying the line where familiar patterns emerge. Virtually every trip is to some new destination. Being a new hire you likely do not have a routine schedule and are on “reserve” filling in where needed. Eventually this gives way to some semblance of routine when you begin holding a regular schedule; many routes and airports become as familiar as your personal neighborhood. As the years go by your familiarity with the destinations in your route system grows.
I find the airport environment the highest threat environment that I face. Not that I will end up in some catastrophe; rather it is likely to be some incident. And there has been a rash of recent incidents; the Airbus 380 striking the tail of the commuter jet at JFK in New York comes to mind. The complexity, traffic congestion, closures and modifications to taxiways due to construction, constant changes, darkness and inclement weather all contribute to making the airport environment a hazard rich environment. Personally I find getting myself through airport security and related difficulties, preflight planning, to my seat in the jet, the jet off the gate and taxied correctly to the appropriate departure runway the most difficult part of my job-and that is not hyperbole.
does scheduling sort that out?
Scheduling does not care. All they care is whether on not they have a legal crew for the trip that needs to be crewed.
or can they be flying to a new one having never seen it before?
We may fly routes and to destinations that we have never seen before. Standardized training, professional discipline, company procedures and worldwide homogeneous navigation facilities, approaches and procedures make this a safe and reliable operation.