of colombians aged 18–25 and a fifth of colombians aged 26–40 had lost their jobs, according to a poll by mccann worldgroup. many others stated they had their working hours reduced or had to take a second job. a majority of colombians (8 in 10) had less income than before the pandemic. in july, unemployment was 20.2% nationally and 26.1% in bogotá. as many college students dropped out, community colleges and trade schools lowered their tuition by about one-quarter on average in 2020. banking during the first six months of 2020, over 1.6 million colombian adults opened a bank account for the first time, with the result that 85% of colombian adults now have a bank account. grupo aval had pushed for elderly people to open bank accounts, considering that they faced the highest risk of covid-19; by mid-april 2020, the institution reported having opened bank accounts for 77,000 pensioners. starting from 18 may 2020, the financial superintendence of colombia issued guidelines on in-person customer service for banks and financial entities, ordering measures such as opening at least 85% of their branches, extending their opening hours to at least six hours a day from monday to friday and four hours if open on saturdays, and establishing priority service hours for people over 60 or with special conditions. air travel while the city of bogotá had received 12 million tourists in 2019, only a third as many came in 2020. similarly, comparing 2019 and 2020, the travel and tourism industry's contribution to the colombian gross domestic product fell by half. on 13 march 2020, the government announced that it would close the border with venezuela, extending the closure to all land borders shortly afterwards. with the start of the nationwide lockdown in late march, both domestic and international flights were shut down and only cargo and humanitarian flights were allowed to continue operating. on 10 may 2020 avianca, the country's flagship airline as well as the second largest one in latin america, announced that it had filed for bankruptcy protection in the united states due to the impact of the pandemic. the airline, having suspended all its passenger operations since late march due to the government's decision to close the country's airspace, had to ground 142 aircraft, send 12,000 out of its 20,000 employees on unpaid leave, and saw its income reduced by over 80 per cent. in late may it was confirmed that latam colombia, the country's second largest airline, had also filed for chapter 11 along with its parent company and other subsidiaries. on 28 may 2020, the colombian government through transportation minister ángela maría orozco confirmed that international flights would remain barred until at least 31 august, but stated that they could likely resume in september. domestic flights and intermunicipal transport, however, were expected to resume in july. on 1 september 2020, 38 domestic flight routes between 16 airports and bus terminals in the main cities of the country resumed operation, although bus companies would not be able to travel to any cities on which the government may place restrictions for covid-19 reasons. there were handwashing and temperature checks at the entrance of both airports and terminals, only travellers were allowed to enter, and waiting rooms required travelers to wear masks and refrain from eating. on 4 september, it was confirmed that departments with infection rates below 1,000 per 100,000 inhabitants and whose main access route from other departments is by air, would request all travellers aged over 7 the result of the coronavirus test to allow entry. people who failed to present it or with a positive result would not be allowed to board the aircraft. international flights were authorized to resume with a pilot plan from cartagena's rafael núñez international airport to fort lauderdale and miami starting from 19 september, with other international airports such as bogotá, medellín, and cali gradually reopening starting from 21 september. during the first stage of reactivation, only flights between colombia and brazil, ecuador, mexico, guatemala, bolivia, dominican republic, and the united states were operated, and starting from 30 september 2020 all passengers were required to present upon arrival a negative pcr test taken within 96 hours of the departure of the flight in order to enter the country. the spread of the omicron variant of sars-cov-2 in early 2022 disrupted the operations of several airlines in the country, due to the cancellation of 138 flights during the first weekend of the year which affected 17,394 passengers. latam colombia, which confirmed it had 18% of its crew and operational staff infected by omicron, cancelled 53 flights scheduled between 8 and 16 january, whilst avianca reported the early cancellation of several flights (mostly domestic) scheduled between 1 and 15 january which equalled to 4% of its total operation, and viva air colombia rescheduled 4% of its flights. urban transit from 20 march 2020, urban mass transit systems were running at only 10–15% of their usual occupancy. as the economy reactivated, and government guidelines ordered vehicle occupation to be capped at a 35% maximum, passengers increased but ridership remained low. the operation of transmetro in barranquilla was suspended on the morning of 2 may 2020 until further notice as passengers were not abiding by social distancing instructions within the system and vehicles were overcrowded. transmetro resumed operation three days later with adjusted health protocols. by 11 may, vehicles in bogotá, cali, medellín, bucaramanga, and pereira were being used to about one-quarter of their usual occupancy (using pre-quarantine levels in early march as a reference point), while in barranquilla they operated with less than one-fifth of their usual occupancy, and in cartagena vehicles had only 6% of their usual occupancy. as a result, in may it was estimated that colombian mass transit systems would lose cop 1.8 trillion (us$450 million) by the end of 2020. starting from 15 august, the operation of 21 routes of cali's mio was suspended, and 23 others had their hours of operation reduced to peak hours. this decision was made owing to the fact that the pandemic caused the mass transit system's demand to plummet to an average of 162,000 passengers per day, a 63% decrease from the average of 438,000 passengers per day mobilized in february, while revenue from ticket sales decreased by 60%, thus worsening the system's financial crisis. on 3 september, the ministry of health issued new guidelines on urban transit, intercity and individual travel. the resolution 1537 of 2020 allowed urban mass transit systems to run at a 50% maximum occupancy and requested the implementation of measures to regulate access of passengers to stations, terminals, ticket booths, and vehicles, as well as the organization of lines that guarantee a two-metre separation between people, or as determined by the competent local authorities to prevent crowding. as for long-distance intercity travel, the protocol established that routes should be planned, identifying in advance the places where stops could be made every three hours to fill up fuel, make use of bathrooms, and verify that vehicles are equipped with enough basic personal hygiene products. the same resolution also allowed members of a same family group to mobilize in a same vehicle according to its maximum capacity, with mandatory use of face masks. bogotá's automobile traffic control measure known as pico y placa, temporarily suspended on 20 march as it was deemed unnecessary during the quarantine, was set to resume on 22 september given that traffic congestion had returned with the lifting of the nationwide lockdown and restrictions on mobility. only half as many trips were taken on urban public transit in 2020 as compared to the previous year, according to the results of a survey of eight metropolitan areas and 15 cities, released by dane on 16 february 2021. bogotá's transmilenio bus system was representative of this, with both ridership and revenue falling by half from 2019 to 2020. restaurants and retail considering that the mother's day holiday is key for businesses such as restaurants and retail commerce, most of which were closed due to the national lockdown, the colombian national federation of commerce (fenalco) requested for the holiday to be moved to another date in the second semester of the year after the health emergency was over. in response to that request, colombian minister of trade josé manuel restrepo stated that the original date would stand, however, an extra holiday in the second semester of the year would be granted as well. the increase in food delivery and postal shipping increased demand for disposable materials like plastic and styrofoam. in may 2020, an opinion poll found that a majority in the cities of bogotá, medellín, cali, and barranquilla approved of the usage of plastic for these purposes. the poll also found that half of people under 25 years old reported they were using more plastic bags than they had used a year earlier and that only a quarter regretted this increase. the first of three "vat-free days", approved by the colombian government in late 2019, was held on 19 june 2020. the measure, aimed at helping economic recovery by jump-starting consumption and purchase of clothes, televisions and other consumer goods amid soaring unemployment and monthly economic contraction in the double digits, prompted citizens to flock to shopping centres to take advantage of bargains. there were long queues outside some stores and social media was flooded with images of people jostling to enter shops and hauling away tvs and other consumer goods. most people seemed to be wearing masks but in many cases social distancing was non-existent, and some shops had to be closed. minister of trade josé manuel restrepo stated that the day was an economic success, with sales across the country being five times higher than on a regular day during the pandemic and 30% higher compared to levels before the start of the lockdown. online sales were also 18 times higher than on a regular day, with the websites of some stores struggling to cope with demand. president iván duque pointed out that most people had observed social distancing during the day, but also acknowledged that there were crowds in some places and citizen behaviour had not been good enough. the day was harshly criticized by local rulers such as mayor of bogotá claudia lópez, who dubbed it as "covid friday", citizens in social media, epidemiologists and health experts, who expressed concern over the realization of such a day in the midst of a pandemic and at a moment when the number of daily cases was increasing rapidly and the peak of the pandemic had not been reached yet. they also stated fears that one of the activity's future consequences would be the increase of the speed of transmission of coronavirus, thus damaging the effort made during the lockdown. two further vat-free days were scheduled for 3 and 19 july, with the purchase of electric appliances and other tech devices such as televisions, computers and mobile phones being restricted to online sales for those days to discourage crowding in shops. on 15 july, president duque announced that the third vat-free day scheduled for 19 july would be put off to a later date due to new measures to be issued together with local authorities as covid-19 cases were spiking in the country. by early july, one-third of restaurants in colombia had closed permanently, as they were generally unable to obtain long-term concessions from their landlords. in march 2021, one year into the pandemic, asobares, an industry group representing nightclubs, said that one-quarter of the 36,000 bars that had existed in bogotá as of january 2020 had not renewed their licenses and that 60,000 jobs had been lost. public order according to a report by human rights watch released in july 2020, rebel groups such as the eln and dissenters of farc as well as drug cartels have taken advantage of the isolation measures taken in the framework of the pandemic, as well as the absence of the colombian state in some zones, to exercise social control measures in areas of various departments of the country. the report stated that armed groups were imposing rules to prevent the spread of covid-19 in at least 11 of colombia's 32 departments: arauca, bolívar, caquetá, cauca, chocó, córdoba, guaviare, huila, nariño, norte de santander and putumayo, which were