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SAN FRANCISCO — An army of airport security screeners arrived at San Francisco International Airport Tuesday morning as part of a federally sponsored project to employ private contractors. 

According to SFO Duty Manager Henry Thompson, SFO is participating in a pilot project to staff the airport with about 850 federally trained security screeners contracted out by Covenant Aviation Security, a private security services provider. 

Roughly 450 screeners began work this morning in the airport's first phase of the project. The target number of workers will be reached later this week or early next week with the arrival of about 400 more screeners. 

“The transition thus far has been smooth, and that is to be expected,” Thompson said. 

With regard to incumbent SFO screeners, Thompson said that due to newly imposed federal guidelines outlined in the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, a large percentage of workers at SFO will be let go. Those screeners able to meet the new guidelines will be kept on while others will be employed in non-security positions. 

SFO is one of five commercial airports across the nation where Congress plans to study the effectiveness of employing private industry to staff U.S. airports. The arrangement allows all airports involved to employ federally trained private workers. 

According to a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, the private contract screeners have met all the minimum federal requirements including, U.S. citizenship, high school degree, a GED or equivalent, or one year security screening experience. 

The Aviation and Transportation Security Act mandates that TSA deploy federal screeners to all commercial airports by Nov. 19.  

Transportation Security Administration screeners took over for private contractors at Oakland and San Jose international airports in early October.