BERLIN (Reuters) - Lufthansa (>> Deutsche Lufthansa AG) will take the next year to analyse how to integrate Brussels Airlines into the airline group, meaning it will be 2018 before any customers see changes to the brand, a Lufthansa executive said on Thursday.

Lufthansa announced plans for a full takeover of the carrier, formed in 2002 after the collapse of previous Belgian national carrier Sabena, on Wednesday.

It wants to look at ways to integrate it into its low-cost Eurowings platform, but will also seek to keep more specialist services, such as Brussels Airlines' flights to Africa within the Lufthansa platform, Karl Ulrich Garnadt, head of Eurowings told journalists.

"It will be 2018 until customers see any changes," Garnadt said, adding that Lufthansa would first focus on integrating planes on a wet lease deal from Air Berlin (>> Air Berlin Plc) into its network and systems.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Ludwig Burger)

Stocks treated in this article : Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Air Berlin Plc