Avman, try coming to the Canaries and see how many times you have to bring a jet back to 220Kts whilst still well above 10,000ft or take major heading changes to let the Binter ATR get in ahead. I have often, politely, asked the question why, when we could have continued at normal speed and landed and cleared the runway before he even crawls in to finals and never received a sensible answer. I'm afraid the previous posters are right, it IS often simply a case of blatant nationalism for arrivals and departures, the Spanish being the worst offenders in Europe.