San Francisco International Airport will hand over passenger and baggage screening to VMD Corp. on Dec. 1, ending Covenant Aviation Security's 24-year tenure at the hub and displacing approximately 1,279 screeners, supervisors and support staff.

The TSA awarded VMD, a subsidiary of Xcelerate Solutions, a five-year contract for screening operations at SFO. Covenant disclosed the layoffs in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with the California Employment Development Department, with separations effective Nov. 30 — one day before the new contractor assumes operations.

The changeover follows a procurement fight. Covenant challenged the TSA's selection of VMD, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office denied the protest in February 2026, clearing the way for the award.

SFO operates under the TSA's Screening Partnership Program, which allows qualified private contractors to conduct passenger and baggage screening under federal oversight. That structure will not change. Screening procedures and federal security requirements remain in place after the transition, and airport officials say they do not expect the contractor change to disrupt operations.

Workforce protections

The transition's labor exposure is concentrated in a 90-day window. Under SFO's worker retention policy, the incoming contractor must retain existing employees for a 90-day trial period. VMD has begun recruiting from the incumbent workforce, including transportation security officers, supervisors and support personnel.

The Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West is negotiating with VMD over continued employment and contract terms for its members. The outcome of those talks, together with how many of the 1,279 affected workers accept positions with VMD, will determine whether the airport retains its trained screening workforce or faces a rebuild under the new contract's first months.

For Covenant, the loss ends a run at SFO that began in 2002, when the company first took over screening under the federal program established after the creation of the TSA. The five-year term of VMD's award sets the next competitive checkpoint for the contract in the early 2030s, when the incumbent field will again be tested against TSA's procurement criteria.