UK Foreign Office posted a warning about this last week and this is now repeated on the Arsenal website

arsenal.com/news/news-archive/important-info…

Basically, as above, there will probably no way for independent travellers to get out of Portugal on Wednesday 24th.

Since returning on the Thursday it's not an option and if you really want to see the match, contact an international car rental company. Rent a car in Braga drive to Vigo deliver the car at the airport and take a flight back there.

This is going to be first HUGE national strike in many many years...

Good idea above but one way cross-border car rental can be hideously expensive.

In addition, so far as I can tell, there are three daily flights on the 24th Vigo - Paris CDG costing 566 Euros with Air France but nothing direct to the UK.

Pricy! Ryanair are saying as far as they are aware there flights are 100% going ahead on Wednesday? Is the strike confirmed for certain?

Well the local news here is full of the NATO summit which is practically bringing Lisbon to a standstill today, but digging a bit deeper there is plenty of mention of the strike next Wednesday. In particular there is some fear that the criteria for 'provision of minimum service' in certain sectors may not be met.

There is therefore some uncertainty about the overall effect. For example the Lisbon metro says that unless the unions guarantee to operate 50% of the trains they will suspend service completely on safety grounds. The unions seem to be saying that provision of minimum service denies members the right to strike.

It might get nasty and probably won't be the last such action, which is in protest about government austerity measures which include actual pay cuts for civil servants etc, big rises in VAT and other taxes, imposition of tolls on many motorways and more.

Just read a report in Publico one of the Portuguese national dailys! It also reports that "major" hotels are likely to be badly hit during the General Strike.

My advice that if you are in, coming to or leaving Portugal do not plan to travel next Wednesday and hunker down for the day. The main action will be in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra but expect full shutdowns of services throughout the country.

As for Ryanair, as far as I can make out air traffic controllers are also on strike so I cannot see how Ryanair can operate, (unless the have gone into the ATC business now as well.)

Eurocontrol, (which co-ordinates ATC's throughout Europe), reported via Twitter this morning that:

"LATEST: Industrial action in Portugal expected to affect air traffic from 23 Nov 23.00 to 24 Nov 23.00 CET, more at http://ow.ly/3clsO"

Our Ryanair flight on the 24th to Porto was cancelled by Ryanair. We were notified on the 19th we could rebook or request refund. Apparently all flights into, or over, Portugal on the 24th have been cancelled.

We rebooked a flight to Seville and plan to hire a car to tour Southern Portugal and Lisbon by car. Using a car not my preference, but given our time constraints I figure we'll stow it in the cities and use public transportation where a car is impractical.

The Ryanair website now has a list of cancellation for 23rd and 24th November caused by the strike

ryanair.com/en/notices/gops/101119-PORTUGA_A…

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