If you don't drive a Lexus, you're not welcome to park in 30 spots at the Edmonton International Airport.



Stalls in the airport's parking garage's second and third levels are painted "Preferred Parking," along with a logo of the luxury car brand.



The preferential treatment is creating a furor on social media with some labelling it elitist, while others call it creative marketing.



Edmonton International Airport also took to Twitter on Monday to defend the parking spots, explaining that Lexus has paid for 30 of the airport's more than 13,500 stalls through a contract with Pattison Outdoor Advertising that runs until March 2017. There are 2,200 stalls in the parkade. No financial terms of the contract are being released.



"As a not-for-profit, we have always reinvested parking revenue to offset costs," the airport tweeted. It said other groups can also sponsor spots.



The deal with Lexus and Pattison also includes a giant wrap of the terminal tower and a Lexus display vehicle inside the terminal. The Lexus spots, installed last week, are located in blocks of seven. No handicapped stalls were removed for the Lexus stalls, as was circulated on social media.

Consequences for drivers of non-Lexus vehicles who park in the spots is up to Lexus, said EIA spokeswoman Heather Hamilton. "We're not enforcing anything there."



The airport is making no apologies for the preferred parking. "I don't know that the public generally understands how important parking revenue is," she said.



"Our revenue last year was a little over $200 million; $58 million of that comes from parking, concessions and advertising. Every dollar that comes to us from that route is a dollar that we don't have to charge a passenger and we don't have to charge an airline."



EIA’s contract with Pattison pays for replacement of directional signs in the airport to new digital signage, Hamilton added.



"The benefit to this being that signs can be updated on the fly electronically, as opposed to having to be manufactured, and physically changed out by someone on a ladder or on a lift. This will be faster, cheaper and easier."



bmah@postmedia.com



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