Le Gall made the remarks Monday during an address to about 200 attendees at Industry Forum of the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia.

In a speech based on Arianespace's "launches speak louder than words" theme, Le Gall underscored the importance of a sustained mission rate - or tempo - in a launch services company's reliability.

In 2006, six Ariane 5 and three Soyuz launches are planned to orbit 14 satellites. From 2008, Arianespace will be launching an average of five or six heavy-lift Ariane 5s from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana every year, along with two to three Soyuz medium-lift vehicles and one or two lightweight Vega launchers from the well-located equatorial launch base.

Le Gall also cited Arianespace's full-service package as a key to its success. The company's Launch Risk Guarantee is an element of this package, which has been chosen by clients that include Thailand's Shin Satellite Public Company Ltd.

"When our customer in Thailand asked Arianespace not only to launch his satellite but also to manage the totality of the launch risk, the satellite, and to include the first months of the on-orbit satellite risk, he did so because he knew that his advance payments were safe with Arianespace," Le Gall told CASBAA attendees.

"This allowed him to concentrate on what he is good at - which, like many of you here, has much more to do with communications and media," he added.

The support by European institutions and the expertise of Europe's space industry also are important contributors to Arianespace's strength, Le Gall said.

"Arianespace is a rather unique company and benefits strongly from the European attitude toward industry, which is quite different to the view of some of our competitors," he explained.

"I am not trying to say one is better, but they are quite different," he added. "The idea of a national champion is positive in much of Europe, and Arianespace is regarded as one of the few pan-European champions, and a symbol of what Europe can do if it combines the potential of each nation."

In turn, Arianespace's commercial success has fully benefited its industrial partners - as shown by the recent order for 30 Ariane vehicles, which represents five years of work for their European factories.

The capable Arianespace launcher family also is a key element in the company's commercial offering. Le Gall noted that its top-of-the-line Ariane 5 is designed to accommodate dual-satellite payloads, and is able to loft the heaviest satellites with a high degree of reliability, having been designed originally has a human-rated vehicle.

The medium-lift Soyuz - which is operated commercially today Arianespace's Starsem affiliate, and will be coming to Europe's Spaceport in 2008 - also is human-rated, regularly carrying international cosmonaut crews to the International Space Station.

"As a result, we expect to have the most reliable pair of launchers on the market," Le Gall said. "And with the Soyuz launch vehicle's introduction at French Guiana, it will fill out the Arianespace product range by giving us the possibility to launch GEO satellites weighing up to 3 tons, which can help when we have many satellites arriving at the same time."

Arianespace's launcher family is to be completed with the Vega vehicle, which will allow Arianespace to address the market for small and non-geostationary payload launches when it joins Soyuz and Ariane 5 at the Spaceport in French Guiana.

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