Yet many ofthe world's biggest jetleasing companies top customers

for Boeing and Airbus are sinking in debt and scrambling for cash Several are nowup for sale but having difficulty attracting buyers.

When the dust eventually setües, analysts say, many lessors will probably face higher borrowing costs. And that could increase the cost of flying for airiines and passengers.

"There is a lot of disarrayT said Ron

Wainshal, chief executive of Aireasde, a leasing company with a fleet of around 130 commercial jets.

Historically, aircraft-leasing companies have tended to profit from downturns, when airiines put offorders for expensive new planes in favor of taking them on léase until business improves. They have also capitalized on dips in demand to negotiate better

prices from aircraft manufacturers.

But the current environment has placed many lessors in a bind As passenger and freight traffic began to tumble this year, airiines started parking their own jets by the hundreds and returningleased planes once their contracts expired The financial crisis that began last year made it almost impossible for leasing companies to raise the

cash they needed to refinance debt on existingplanes and to pay for new ones they had contracted to buy.

International Léase Finance Corp., or I.L.F.C., a unit ofthe troubled insurer AIG, is among the more hi^i-profile victims. Although it reported a 10 percent rise in second-quarter net profit, to $237 million, ILFC has been unable to gain access to the capital markets since its parent company sought a $180 billion bailout from the United States government late last year.