Predictions of chaos at Heathrow airport because of the public sector pensions strike proved unfounded on Wednesday morning.

Passengers from Australia, Thailand, Nigeria and the U.S., arriving at Terminal 3, have all been flowing through passport checks faster than usual, according to passengers and airport officials in arrivals.

Piles of bottled water, fruit and even nappies and baby food placed in the immigration hall in anticipation of eight-10-hour delays have gone untouched.

"It was the fastest we've ever cleared immigration here," said Sue Bates, with her husband, Ben, off a flight from Bangkok after a holiday in Koh Samui, Thailand. Foreign nationals sped through too.

Olanrewaju Adewunmi, 58, flying in from Lagos via Madrid, said he waited no more than two minutes before clearing the border after a face check and passport scan.

"I was expecting something much worse and to hours of waiting before I got out of here," he said.

Steve Morgan, normally in a suit and tie as BAA's director of capital projects, had donned a purple fleece and a "here to help" badge to cover the 4:00 a.m.-noon shift in the arrivals hall. He didn't have much to do, and explained that a series of factors had eased the flow.

He said he believed that the UK Border Agency had agreed with authorities in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan that they would carry out thorough passport checks before boarding, allowing the replacement border staff at Heathrow to carry out faster face and passport scan checks.

BA and Virgin had cancelled some planes, and airlines had responded to calls to run lighter passenger loads. There were even strong tail winds across the Atlantic last night, allowing flights from the U.S. to arrive an hour early at 5:00 a.m. instead of 6:00 a.m., clearing the decks. The flight screens showed that only four of around 25 flights expected before noon were cancelled.

"We were expecting people to be camping out here in the arrivals hall for eight to 10 hours waiting for passengers, but we have had people saying we should have a strike every day," said Morgan.