By warning of those losses, the two companies joined a number of high-profile corporations that have announced or warned of possible charges related to aircraft leases.

Those financing vehicles had been seen as relatively safe investments for corporate treasurers before the crisis for the airline industry and the sharp decline in travel that followed the hijacking attacks of Sept. 11 last year, analysts said.

Theme park, movie and television company Disney said it would write off $114 million investment in leases to UAL Corp's (NYSE:UAL - News) United and take an after-tax charge of $83 million, or 4 cents per share, in its fiscal first quarter ending Dec. 31.

"Based on United's recent bankruptcy filing, the company believes it is unlikely that it will recover this investment," Disney said.

Earlier on Monday, postage meter maker Pitney Bowes (NYSE:PBI - News) announced a charge of $100 million related to leases with United and US Airways Group Inc.(OTC BB:UAWGQ.OB - News).

UAL filed for bankruptcy protection on Dec. 9 and on Saturday, US Airways Group filed its reorganization plan. The company had filed for bankruptcy protection in August.

Technology services company EDS and appliance maker Whirlpool have also both warned they were exposed to United bankruptcy through leases.

Aircraft and other expensive, heavy equipment can be bought and leased out with tax advantages, said John Deane, managing principal of aircraft leasing consultant The Alta Group. Big airlines, until recently, had seemed like a reasonable credit risk, he added.

'SOUNDS SORT OF SILLY NOW'

"If you stayed with the majors, it was viewed as being a reasonable, conservative investment. Sounds sort of silly now," said Deane.

In the current soft market, lease payments were falling, especially under deals negotiated in bankruptcy court, and the value of aircraft at the end of a 12-or 20-plus-year lease would be less than originally projected, he said.

Many aircraft no longer needed by airlines are already parked, waiting for a recovery in demand, analysts said.

Disney retains investments of about $175 million in planes leased by Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE:DAL - News) and FedEx Corp.(NYSE:FDX - News).

Analysts said that mainstream banks and financial corporations had the bulk of such aircraft leases. Bank One Corp.(NYSE:ONE - News), General Electric Co.(NYSE:GE - News). unit GECAS, and aircraft maker Boeing Co.(NYSE:BA - News) are all seen at risk in the United bankruptcy.

Continental Airlines (NYSE:CAL - News) ranks as the only airline flying before the 1978 deregulation of the industry to emerge from a bankruptcy, an episode that suggests how much creditors can expect to recover in more recent failures, one expert said.

Continental filed for bankruptcy in 1983, fired all of its 12,000 employees and hired back only 4,000 at steep wage cuts.

As Disney and other companies mark down their exposure to United, they are doing a similar kind of math, assuming that some planes are returned under the leases to be "parked in the desert," while terms on the rest are renegotiated, said Randolph Beatty, dean of the Leventhal School of Accounting at USC.

Until recently, such aircraft leases had been seen as a fairly conservative investment and a source of stable cash flows, he said.