Aerospan, the e-commerce portal announced earlier this year by AAR Corp. and airline telecommunications provider SITA, is testing its software with an unidentified airline customer, and has signed up three airlines and two suppliers as clients, senior VP for marketing and business development Hal Chrisman said here Monday.

The Aerospan beta site has been running for two weeks, according to Chrisman. Two to three weeks' more testing will be required before it is opened to other participants.

As the roll-out continues, Aerospan will add features such as online documentation and integration with the user's own enterprise resource planning systems.

"We are focusing on integration," says Chrisman. "We are not about being a web browser. We have to be tightly linked to achieve the full potential of an e-marketplace." A successful e-marketplace, he says, needs to be linked directly to the participants' accounting systems to provide automated, electronic payments.

Aerospan is offering customers an "early adopter" program: in its start-up stages, participating companies can gain equity in Aerospan, based on the volume of business that they transact through the portal.

By Bill Sweetman