A protest by a powerful Mexican teachers’ union briefly halted flights at the main international airport in the capital on Friday afternoon. The demonstration for higher wages created scenes of chaos, delaying travel for thousands of passengers as security forces swarmed into the airport’s terminals in a bid to assert order.

The shutdown in Mexico City began about 2 p.m. local time and lasted about 20 minutes as hundreds of union members marched to the airport’s entrances. The protest also snarled traffic on streets surrounding the airport, which is in a densely populated part of the city, and police officers were seen escorting stranded travelers to the airport in pickups. Officers in riot gear were also seen inside the airport.

While the shutdown was brief, some international flights out of Mexico City were either canceled or delayed for hours on Friday. The airport, also known as Benito Juárez International Airport, is served by 21 airlines, according to its website. On Friday, airlines such as Aeroméxico were offering clients the chance to reschedule their flights without charge or to pay only a small difference in price.

The protest reflects how Mexico’s leftist president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is coming under pressure from some unions and social movements as a weak economy and a yawning budget deficit constrain her ability to raise wages and improve working conditions for many public employees.

“We have not received any attention or respect to resolve our demands, not even the most minimal ones, from the president,” Eva Hinojosa Tera, a union leader from Michoacán state, said in a radio interview on Friday.

The organization staging the protest, the National Educational Workers Coordination, commonly known by its initials C.N.T.E., is a splinter group of Mexico’s largest teachers’ union and has participated in strikes and demonstrations for years. The 100,000-strong group's demands include doubling teacher salaries and appealing pension and education laws they deem harmful.

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