Employees from Covenant Aviation Security, the private company that holds the contract to conduct security screening at San Francisco International Airport, process passengers on Nov. 25, 2025.

Washington, DC (CNN) — At 20 airports in the United States, security screening is handled not by the Transportation Security Administration, but by private companies — and their checkpoints aren’t seeing long lines.

Airports like San Francisco International, Kansas City International, Orlando Sanford, and 17 smaller facilities participate in TSA’s Screening Partnership Program which uses contractors at the checkpoints.

The private companies have avoided the large-scale absences some airports that use TSA staff are struggling with right now during the partial government shutdown.

“These 20 airports are completely oblivious to the government shutdown,” said Sheldon Jacobson, a founder professor of computer science who analyzes data to improve aviation security.

“Airport lines got you down?” VMD Corp., which runs the checkpoints in Kansas City and Orlando Sanford International, asked on social media. “The professional teams at our SPP (Screening Partnership Programs) airports have less than 3 minute lines.”

Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport have both seen wait times exceed two hours this week, as more than a third of TSA employees at each airport didn’t show up to work.

The government-employed screeners have not gotten paid in more than a month as Congress remains locked in a stalemate over funding the Department of Homeland Security due to immigration reform.

Yet, the logjam has not impacted screeners who work for private companies.

“All operations at the privatized airports are normal because we continue paying our employees during the shutdown,” said Nat Carmack of BOS Security, which screens passengers at Tupelo Regional Airport in Mississippi. “Our employees have never missed a paycheck during any of the government shutdowns.”