Why is the Boeing 737 slower than most commercial planes?

Posted by FuckPotatoesVeryMuch@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 1 comments

I was randomly looking at random specs of different planes and I couldn’t help but notice that the Boeing 737 (even the modern MAX versions) are considerably slower at cruise than most other planes, even similarly sized ones. The 737 cruise speed is Mach 0.78/0.79 while most other planes are within the Mach 0.82-0.86. Is there a reason for this difference?