A system and method are disclosed for controlling the speed of an aircraft having a preprogrammed speed profile when transitioning from a manually set target speed to the preprogrammed speed profile. In operation, an input is received indicating that a user desires to transition from a manually set target speed to the preprogrammed speed profile. A determination is then made as to whether the manually set target speed satisfies one or more selected conditions for qualifying as a constraint speed of the preprogrammed speed profile. If the manually set target speed satisfies the one or more selected conditions, the preprogrammed speed profile is updated to include the manually set target speed as a constraint speed and the speed of the aircraft is controlled using the updated speed profile.