Kansas City, Mo ? The federal government took over screening Tuesday at Kansas City International Airport, the deadline for 44,000 new government employees to be in place at the country’s 429 commercial airports.

At KCI, one of five airports where the screeners are actually employed by private companies rather than the federal government itself, the takeover went smoothly, officials said.

“It’s gone very, very well,” said Richard Curasi, the federal Transportation Security Administration’s director at KCI. “The gates are totally manned with screeners. The lines have been flowing well all day. And I am hearing good feedback about the customer service.”

The screeners have been phased in at airports for the past few months, and Tuesday was the deadline for the changeover to take effect.

At KCI, some gates had as many as a dozen screeners. Their duties included greeting passengers, handing them baskets to remove metal objects, leading them through metal detectors, checking bags through an X-ray machine or by hand, and scanning people with metal-detecting wands.

The federal screeners’ duties are the same at every airport, officials said.

Some aviation industry experts have been skeptical about the federal government’s ability to handle such a daunting task. On Tuesday, travelers at KCI said the new screeners they have encountered appear to be more efficient and friendly than screeners in the past.