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Airports are critical for travel throughout the world and some places are going to spend more money than others to make them work. It is anything but cheap to build airports as they can include a large variety of different strips of land for planes to take off, a large number of security features and places to house planes in.

The fact that you'd have to get a large amount of land taken out just to get space for planes to actually take off and land on only makes the charges more expensive. Some places have to raise large amounts of land or even create new bodies of land in some of the most extreme cases for getting such spots ready.

Airports are made to last and are supposed to be around for years to come. In fact, many airports are often designed with elaborate architectural features and support for dozens of shops and restaurants just to make the travel experience more enjoyable and less of a chore.

There are many airports around the world that have been built at some dramatic prices and entail loads of different features. These large airports include a variety of places that cost billions to make in a variety of ways including the expenses associated with getting enough space just to have runways that can be at least a mile long.

However, these places are spots that are extremely popular for travel purposes. They include places that cover tens of millions of people every year and are in a few of the fastest-growing spots around the world. It only makes sense that airports in some of these high-end spots would cost more to make but they are still places that cost billions to build. These should be built to last considering how much money it cost to make them.

10. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport - $3.2 billion

This airport based in the Dallas area is undergoing a $2.3 billion terminal construction project that helps to get this airport on the list. This project is underway and will be completely finished in 2017. This is amazing seeing how it cost $1.9 million to build the airport back in 1940. The airport has an average annual economic impact of around $16.8 billion and gets a little more than 55 million passengers each year.

9. Kuala Lumpur International Airport - $3.5 billion

Built over the course of five years, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport opened in 1998. It covers 25,000 acres of space and has individual terminals for low-cost and standard air travel. The driverless train system, Aerotrain, can move at least three thousand people in the course of an hour and has become a standard-bearer for in-airport transportation. It is capable of moving people quickly around just about any site in the airport.

8. Denver International Airport - $4.8 billion

The Denver International Airport went $2 billion over budget before it opened in 1995. The airport was designed to hold six runways and covers 35,000 acres of land. The cost of the airport will increase soon as a $500 million extension to the main Jeppesen Terminal is expected to be built in the near future and will have a business center and hotel inside its area plus a rail link.

7. Berlin Brandenburg Airport - $5.5 billion

The Brandbenburg Airport will replace Berlin's Tegel airport in 2015. It cost around $5.5 billion to build this airport. The airport will incorporate Tegel's air traffic and include a new business park, easy rail access and a gate that can handle the Airbus A380, a plane that costs $400 million to build but can fit at least 500 passengers depending on the overall layout used inside the plane.

6. Dubai International Airport - $6 billion

When its original construction totals are combined with recent expansions like new terminals to handle larger planes, the Dubai International Airport cost $6 billion to build. The addition of Terminal Three to handle more than 45 million passengers each year has helped add to the expense of the airport at a cost of $4.5 billion for that single part alone. Its' baggage handling system is especially large as it can take 8,000 pieces an hour.

5. Beijing Capital International Airport - $8 billion

Much of the total cost of the Beijing Capital International Airport came from the $3.8 billion expansion at Terminal 3 in recent years. Terminal 3 has 3.2 million square feet of space, more than 70 restaurants and a baggage area that handles a large barcode-based system for handling materials and can take in more than 19,000 pieces in one hour. The expenses are extremely high but the airport can take in 80 million people each year.

4. London Heathrow Airport - $10.5 billion

The total cost of Heathrow, the largest airport in all of London and much of the world, has totaled $10.5 billion since it opened in 1929. The most expensive part came from the amount spent on Terminal 5, a section that opened in 2008. The airport will also spend around $1.6 billion in the next ten years to upgrade Terminal 3. This is all for an airport that brings in $16 billion per year.

3. Al Maktoum International Airport - $12 billion

This Airport is located about twenty miles outside Dubai in the town of Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates. The airport just recently started accepting passenger flights for the first time since opening in 2010. It is being expanded to cover three passenger terminals and five runways of 16,100 feet each and will even have 100,000 parking spaces. This will be totally completed in 2027 at a cost of $12 billion.

2. Hong Kong International Airport - $20 billion

It took approximately six years for the Hong Kong International Airport to be built. It opened in 1998 and cost $20 billion to make. This is primarily because the airport is on an artificial island. The Chek Lap Kok Island on the western shore of Hong Kong was leveled to make room for this airport and to create a strong base for the entire airport. A few smaller islands were removed as well but the process of creating new land was extremely costly.

1. Kansai International Airport - $20 billion

The Kansai airport serves the Osaka, Japan area and is built on a 2.5-mile-long artificial island that is designed with a large sea wall to protect it from waves and other natural issues. The design has helped it to survive the 1995 Kobe earthquake. The airport features a bridge that was built at a cost of $1 billion and is made to help get people onto the island. A third terminal for Jetstar flights will more than likely cause the $20 billion total to go up.