Abstract: This paper collects the spatial location data of civil aviation transportation enterprises in 34 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China in 2000, 2008 and 2016. Then it adopts the overall autocorrelation and partial autocorrelation methods to study the agglomeration of civil aviation transportation enterprises in China. It is found that the degree of concentration of civil aviation transportation enterprises in China is gradually deepening, the phenomenon of high-high agglomeration is extending from the central to the south and north ends, and the phenomenon of high-low aggregation is extending from Hainan and Guangdong towards the coastal provinces. The economic space spill effect of the civil aviation transport enterprises is remarkable. In addition, the metrological analysis with the panel data shows that, according to the different types of market demands, the locational choice of civil aviation transportation enterprises in China can be divided into such types as the tertiary industry-oriented, the tourism-oriented, the logistics-oriented and the comprehensive. The comprehensive supportability factor of the airports has a significant positive impact on the development of the civil aviation transport enterprises. There exists a competitive relationship between the regional highway and railway development and the development of civil aviation transport enterprises.

Key words: civil aviation transportation enterprises; location choice; panel data; aggregating conditions