Tourism contributes significantly to the global economy and the commercial airline industry is an integral part of global tourism. Therefore, maintaining financially health is important for both airlines and the tourism industry. The commercial airline industry is special because it is capital-intensive and the leasing of assets is popular. The study uses a panel dataset of 19 publicly listed airlines to analyze the impact of aircraft-introducing methods on capital structure decisions in the commercial airline industry. The result indicates that operating leases tend to increase debt ratios but purchases tend to reduce them. The decision to lease instead of purchase has a stronger impact on long-term than on short-term debt financing. Quantile regression test results show that the impact of operating leases on debt ratios is state-dependent, and particularly strong at high quantiles of debt level. This study has significant implications for airlines to improve their financing of aircraft.