It shouldn't be all that surprising, but the dunes of Arrakis are massive, sandworm-infested, and can become a bit of a slog when you're trekking from one side to the other for quests and resources. But you don't have to walk it out. Dune: Awakening actually has fast travel, it's just hidden behind an NPC that you'll meet during a side quest.
Even though [[link]] you'll unlock other modes of transport later on, including land and air vehicles, fast travel is still a necessity if you need to go from one side of the map to another in an instant. So here's what you need to do.
How to unlock and use fast travel in Dune: Awakening
You'll unlock fast travel when you first visit Griffin's Reach Tradepost in the A Touch of Civilisation quest in the hopes of regrouping with Zantara early on. When you arrive, you'll automatically get the A Wider World side quest to speak to the ornithopter pilot, who's hiding in the corner of the main building opposite the contract board near the merchant. This pilot acts like a taxi, providing fast travel between cities and tradeposts that you've already visited.
Speaking to the ornithopter pilot, you can ask them to fly you to three locations: Hagga Basin, Arrakeen, and Harko Village. [[link]] While Arakeen is an Atreides [[link]] stronghold and Harko Village is its Harkonnen counterpart, primarily used for faction and Landsraad activities, selecting Hagga Basin lists various key locations you've been to that you can quickly fly to. Yes, this does mean that you have to head to an ornithopter pilot at a tradepost (like Griffin's Reach) each time you want to fast travel, as you can't conveniently do it from the map screen.
Outside of fast travelling, you can also get a sandbike, a jeep, and even an ornithopter of your own. You'll need these to travel between areas that can't be accessed by fast travelling–everything outside of settlements, basically.
