If there’s one transportation system that needs an update in the United States, it’s the gut-churning, headache-inducing, atmosphere-destroying mess known as air travel.

In an effort to address the problem, Grimshaw Architects recently released an extravagantly futuristic plan for a “Next Generation Airport” that would seemingly solve many of our current airport dilemmas.

The Next Generation Airport would be built on an offshore man-made island. Check-in and ticketing processes would be completed exclusively online, and radio-frequency identification chips would enable luggage to be conveyed directly to the plane without manual handling. Passengers would go through a security gate before taking a high-speed underwater train to the airport itself.

Given the size, cost, and time it would require to create necessary technologies, the Next Generation Airport will likely remain a dream. But at the same time, what’s happening outside of the architectural dream world and inside America’s airports is a nightmare.

Earlier this month, a company that worked to speed passengers through airport security checkpoints, Verified Identity Pass, shut down due to financial problems. It was announced the passengers who had subscribed to the service would not be reimbursed. And on a much larger scale, airports are not making enough money to follow through with planned renovations due to a plummeting number of passengers. Almost all capital projects in America’s airports are being scaled back or cut altogether.

While cutting costly projects seems appropriate for the recession, shelving projects entirely could create more problems in the long run. It may not be necessary to start building the Next Generation Airport immediately, but it is important to find a middle ground between nixing big ideas and proceeding with the most urgent updates.

In Oakland, for example, where a $1 billion terminal was in the works, a decrease in passenger traffic forced aviation director Steve Grossman to find a new solution.

“One has to look ahead 10 to 20 years, but you have to be realistic about the short run. We could not afford to build the terminal and cover the carrying costs in the short run,” he said.

Instead, Oakland will undertake a $200 billion renovation of their existing terminal.