Originally Posted by Cockney Steve
As a non-pilot, I may be talking out of my khyber*...but surely,in these times of high fuel-costs, they should have throttled-back miles before and then "coasted" down
You are indeed talking out of your @ss.
To quote from Avherald:
the controller advised that the active runway had just been switched to runway 19, which shortened the flying distance to land by about 20 nautical miles.
They couldn't have "coasted" it down because they had already commenced descent.
After the runway change, provided the cabin wasn't going to be caught before touchdown, there is no value in not using extra drag to get the thing down on the ground. Coasting it down = more flying time = more operating costs.