Air New Zealand services could be disrupted for the next two years, as 17 of its aircraft are checked for possible microscopic cracks in the engines' fans.

In July, engine manufacturer Pratt and Whitney announced up to 700 planes worldwide needed to be inspected, affecting maintenance schedules.

Air New Zealand says the 17 A320 and 321 NEO aircraft served Australia, the Pacific Islands and domestic routes.

Chief executive Greg Foran says most customers will still fly on the same day, but some on international flights will move a day either side of their original booking.

The airline will have up to four planes grounded at any one time and is looking to lease additional aircrafts.

Direct flights from Auckland to Hobart and Seoul will also be paused from April 2024.

"The pause on flying to Seoul will allow more resiliency when the Trent-1000 engines that power our 787 fleet go for regular maintenance due to potential issues with the availability of spare engines from Rolls Royce to cover the maintenance period," says Foran.

"While both routes have performed well, we need to ensure we can deliver a reliable service across the rest of our network and get customers on our most in-demand routes to where they need to be."

Impacted customers don't need to contact Air NZ - they will be contacted in the coming weeks.

Foran says it's not the news the company hoped for, after it announced earlier this year it had purchased new aircraft to add capacity and assist in meeting ongoing strong demand.

"Although those new aircraft are still due to arrive - two new ATRs in late 2024/early 2025, two new A321NEOs in early 2025 together with two domestic A321s and eight B787s being delivered between 2024 and 2027 - these network and schedule changes have been required to manage an issue that no one expected just a few months ago.

"We will continue to do everything we can to ensure stability across our network."

-RNZ.