Global airlines are meeting under a storm pattern of trade tensions, rising oil prices and a two-month-old grounding of the Boeing Co 737 Max jetliner — threatening to put a halt to five years of strong profits in the cut-throat air travel industry.

Growing tension over international trade could damage the airline industry and the world economy, global airlines and aviation executives have warned.

The operator of Cork and Dublin Airports has hit back at claims by an airline organisation that passengers across Europe are being “denied the full benefits of air travel” due to airport charges.

Shares in Air France-KLM fell the most since 2014, as the surprise exit of chief executive Alexandre de Juniac after just three years in the top job created a power vacuum that puts Europe’s biggest carrier at the mercy of unions implacably opposed to cost-cutting plans.

Union activists protesting against proposed layoffs at Air France stormed the headquarters during a meeting, zeroing in on two managers who had their shirts torn from their bodies, scaled a fence and fled under police protection.