(Recasts with Eurowings comments)
FRANKFURT, June 29 (Reuters) - Lufthansa said itwants to use its expanded low-cost brand Eurowings as a platformfor European consolidation, and it could potentially take inother Lufthansa units or part-owned stakes such as BrusselsAirlines and Air Dolimiti.
The first plane with the new Eurowings branding, aimed atprice-sensitive leisure tourists, will take off from Cologne tothe Dominican Republic in November. From Jan. 1, it will replacethe Germanwings brand.
Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr said Europe'sairlines needed to consolidate. Lufthansa wants to be a part ofthat process and sees Eurowings as the ideal platform, he said.
Eurowings is Lufthansa's answer to low-cost carriers such asRyanair and easyJet. It will have an Austrianoperating licence and is not bound by the group collectivelabour agreements at its Lufthansa and Germanwings brands.
Lufthansa owns a 45 percent stake in Brussels Airlines andhad agreed that this would only be a first step towards a fulltakeover. Spohr said however it was not yet clear if and when acomplete takeover would happen.
The airline also added it will keep its investment budget to2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) a year until 2020.
Separately, Lufthansa and cabin crew union UFO are holdingtalks on whether to resume negotiations over pay and pensions ina bid to stave off what could be imminent strikes over the busysummer holiday season.
($1 = 0.8997 euros) (Reporting by Victoria Bryan and Peter Maushagen; Editing byArno Schuetze and David Evans)
easyJet (EZJ)
