Lufthansa's Eurowings delays some long-haul routes after tough start

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Lufthansa's (LHAG.DE) budget unit Eurowings has pushed back the start of some long-haul routes as it grapples with costly delays that have grabbed headlines in Germany.

Eurowings will commence routes to Boston and Miami from Cologne in June, a month later than originally planned, a spokesman said on Wednesday. A planned route to Tehran in Iran has also been put on hold.

While Eurowings is mainly aimed at the short-haul market, the carrier is also offering cut-price flights from Germany to further-flung tourist destinations such as Cuba, Thailand and Mexico.

But with a fleet of only two long-haul jets, delays have been stacking up when technical problems occur, including one incident that resulted in a delay of over 60 hours on a flight from Cuba.

Parent group Lufthansa has temporarily taken control of a route to Dubai while Eurowings works on stabilising the operation.

The unit is due to receive two more A330 long-haul jets over the next two months and aims to have a fleet of seven wide-body planes by 2017.

Lufthansa wants to make Eurowings the third-largest low-cost carrier in Europe, behind Ryanair (RYA.I) and easyJet (EZJ.L), as it seeks to tap into growing demand for leisure travel and fend off its rivals at home in Germany.

(Reporting by Peter Maushagen; Writing by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)