Travelling voters and the choice of air travel over other means of transport brought about a 40.2 per cent annual rise in domestic passenger traffic through the country’s airports last month, according to figures published on Thursday by the Civil Aviation Authority.

This follows the announcement of a 43.9 per cent annual increase in domestic traffic at Athens International Airport, as besides travelling for the January 25 election, weather problems led to a rise in the use of air travel over ferries.

The total number of passengers passing through the country’s airports in January came to 1.617 million, of whom 855,459 were on domestic flights and 762,485 on international flights. This translates into a total increase of 31.4 per cent in all passengers from January 2014, as international traffic rose by 21.9 per cent.