The busy summer travel season often means one thing for passengers at American airports: longer lines in ever-more-crowded terminals. Our airports take every measure possible to prepare for the summer travel surge by implementing measures to minimize wait times, but tight budgets, outdated terminals and pre-9/11 screening facilities at many airports make it much harder to process millions of additional passengers.

Some recent press reports have suggested — and we agree — that the long wait times resulting from staffing shortfalls will be further exacerbated by the diversion of personnel from both the Transportation Security Administration and Customs and Border Protection to the southern border. That debate also overlooks a much simpler solution that would help cut wait times and improve the travel experience for millions of Americans during future summer travel: updating the Passenger Facility Charge, or PFC, a local user fee on which airports depend to fund capital investments.