Something I have always wondered is: does the flight's distance and duration affect the cruise speed in any one particular aircraft? In other words, do you cruise slower on shorter flights?
For example, if you fly from London to Manchester in an A320, would you cruise at a slower speed than, say on an A320 flight from London to Athens in order not to arrive too quickly and in order to 'drag out' (no pun intended) the length of the cruise?
As explained above, I appreciate that speeds also vary depending on external factors, such as ATC requests.