Royal Jordanian scrapped a flight to Doha on Sunday in the latest twist in a row over a deported official of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas who was flown back to Amman on a Qatari plane.
No official announcement was made by the Jordanian carrier, which continued to publish details of its flights to the Qatari capital as usual.
But a travel agency employee told AFPon condition of anonymity that "a Royal Jordanian return flight from Amman to Doha planned for this morning has been cancelled".
It was unclear if the other scheduled flights on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday were also scrapped, he said.
Ibrahim Ghoshe, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, has been locked in a standoff with Jordan since his arrival at Amman's airport Thursday from Qatar, when he attempted to return home after living in exile since November 1999.
The head of Jordan's civil aviation authority, Jihad Rsheid, was quoted in the Jordan Timesdaily as having called for the cancellation of Qatar Airways flights to Amman. "Rsheid said he had sent a strongly-worded message to his Qatari counterpart Abdul Aziz Noaimi demanding the suspension of Qatar Airways summer flights to Amman pending the resolution of the stalemate," the paper said.
It added that Rsheid "asked for the suspension of the flights because Qatar may have planned to send back three other exiled Hamas leaders (also banished to Qatar in 1999) despite Jordan's refusal".
AFP