Wrong. There is actually a niche of financial engineering used to work around this problem known as aircraft securitization. Airlines don't buy the planes direc

Wrong. There is actually a niche of financial engineering used to work around this problem known as aircraft securitization. Airlines don't buy the planes directly, they set up separate corporate entities (SPVs) that purchase the planes with cash generated by issuing bonds. The airline then leases the plane from the SPV and the bondholders are paid with the lease payments. The collateral in this case is usually the plane itself, and if the bonds go bad the bondholders are first in line for any payments from liquidating the SPV collateral. Also, the debt stays off the books of the airline.