EU targets aimed at increasing the use of so-called sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) by airlines in a bid to cut fossil fuel emissions are "not achievable", the head of the IATA airline industry body said Thursday.

Workers refuel an Airbus A350 with sustainable aviation fuel at Roissy airport, north of Paris. (File photo: AP)

Targets set by the European Union in 2023 call for SAFs to constitute 20 percent of airlines' fuel use by 2035, up from around two percent currently.

"We're not seeing progress in terms of the production of SAF," IATA chief Willie Walsh told an industry event. "I always felt that the EU ambition was not achievable. I still hold that view."