Lufthansa, TUI to cooperate on long-haul tourist flights

* Lufthansa to lease Boeing (NYSE: BA - news) 767 from TUI (LSE: TUI.L - news) for Eurowings

* Lufthansa says marketing of Eurowings started well (Adds Lufthansa comment, further details)

FRANKFURT, March 20 (Reuters) - Lufthansa and travel group TUI plan to cooperate on flights to remote tourist spots when the German airline's new long-haul budget carrier Eurowings starts services later this year, the companies said on Friday.

Trying to cut costs and compete with budget carriers such as Ryanair and Gulf operators including Emirates, Lufthansa will offer flights to tourist destinations like Cuba and Thailand under the Eurowings banner from Oct. 25.

A spokeswoman for Lufthansa said that marketing of Eurowings flights had "started off quite well", prompting the carrier to strike a deal to lease a Boeing 767 aircraft with crew from TUI for the 2015/16 winter season.

German daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) earlier cited industry sources as saying TUI had agreed to book Eurowings seats for a "substantial portion" of its tourists travelling long-distance, which neither company confirmed.

Lufthansa is battling to remain competitive against budget carriers such as Ryanair and easyJet and Gulf operators including Emirates, Etihad and Qatar on lucrative long-haul routes.

Its plan to expand Eurowings, where costs are 40 percent below those of Lufthansa-branded operations, have met fierce resistance from pilots, who staged their 14th strike since April on Friday, grounding 700 flights and stranding thousands of passengers. (Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Keith Weir)