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* Analysts say too many brands could create complexity
* CEO says could not do low-cost under Lufthansa brand
* Unions welcome growth, rather than cuts
* Lufthansa shares down 4 pct (Adds comments from unions in paragraphs 9 and 10)
BERLIN, July 10 (Reuters) - Lufthansa's new chiefexecutive on Thursday defended the airline's plans to expand itslow-cost services under new brands, after some analystsquestioned the wisdom of such a move.
Carsten Spohr, who took over as CEO in May, presented planson Wednesday that include expanding low-cost services in Europeand possibly on intercontinental flights, as well as groundingeight planes this winter, to battle competition from MiddleEastern and low-cost carriers.
Some analysts said, however, that plans to extendLufthansa's little-known Eurowings regional carrier could createadditional complexity at the group and highlighted how saturatedthe low-cost market in Europe already was.
"The European low-cost market is starting to suffer from aproliferation of operators and this development will only worsenthat situation," HSBC analysts wrote in a note.
Spohr said Lufthansa, Europe's largest airline by revenue,needed to do more to lure price-sensitive travellers but wouldrisk losing higher-paying business customers if it did so underits premium namesake brand.
"If you're on a Lufthansa product, you expect certainelements. If I take them away I hurt my brand," he told agathering of analysts in London on Thursday.
Using a carrier such as Eurowings or even starting fromscratch, as Lufthansa would have to for low-cost long haul, alsoallows Lufthansa to avoid collective labour agreements at itsLufthansa and Germanwings units, he said. Eurowings operates ata cost base about 20 percent below that of Germanwings.
"In the end it creates opportunities for staff. They won'tbe as well paid as my Lufthansa A380 pilots but it'sopportunities for jobs," Spohr said, dismissing possibleconcerns from labour unions.
Unions drew some comfort from Spohr's plans, while saying itwas too early for a definitive response.
UFO, which represents around 18,000 Lufthansa cabin crew,said it was right to focus on growth and that the low-costsegment represented an attractive market, while Verdi, theGerman service union, said that the fact Lufthansa was talkingabout expansion and not cost cuts was positive.
Spohr also rejected the idea that Lufthansa could buy alow-cost airline such as Wizz rather than expanding a brand italready owns. Eastern European Wizz recently pulled plans for aninitial public offering, and Air France earlier thisweek denied it was in talks to buy the carrier.
After rising 1.4 percent on Wednesday, Lufthansa shares weredown more than 4 percent on Thursday, mirroring falls in otherairline stocks.
Part of Spohr's plans is a new joint venture with Air China to give Lufthansa a bigger foothold in China, theworld's second-largest travel market.
However, the partnership, in which the two airlines willshare ticket revenues on certain routes, may not be fully up andrunning until 2016 as it will take some time to obtainanti-trust approval, Spohr said.
He added that Lufthansa could ground more planes, on top ofthe eight already planned, as a short-term measure to deal withovercapacity, but said no decision had been taken yet. (Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Additional reporting by PeterMaushagen; Editing by Arno Schuetze/Ruth Pitchford)
