Airborne microbes are major biological components of the ecosystem that have important ecosystem functions, affect human health and air pollution, and are key indicators of air quality. To determine the metabolic characteristics and community diversity of airborne microbes in different functional regions of Qingdao in winter, sampling sites were set up in five different functional regions (urban streets, a coastal area, drinking water source area, municipal landfill, and artificial wetlands). Airborne microbes were then collected using an SAS ISO100 air sampler in January 2013 and their carbon source metabolic characteristics, functional diversity, and relationship with environmental factors were systematically analyzed by the BIOLOG method. The results revealed significant differences in carbon metabolic profiles of air microbial communities from the five locations. When metabolism was stable, the average well color developments of samples from the coastal area and drinking water source area were 0.302 and 0.21, respectively, whereas those of artificial wetlands, urban streets, and municipal landfill were 0.063, 0.025, and 0.034, respectively. Therefore, the levels of carbon metabolism in the coastal area and drinking water source area were higher than those at other locations. The Shannon indexes and Simpson indexes at the five different functional regions were similar. However, the McIntosh indexes at the coastal area and drinking water source area were higher than those at other locations. Overall, the microbial diversity and dominant species differed among functional regions, but microflora was distributed more evenly in the coastal area and drinking water source area. Among the five locations, carbon catabolic types and levels in the coastal area and drinking water source area were richer and higher than those in the artificial wetlands, urban streets, and municipal landfill. Overall, the airborne microbes in various functional areas had high carbohydrate and carboxylic acid metabolism, and air microbial communities in the coastal and drinking water source areas had better ability to metabolize polymers, carbohydrates, carboxylic acids, and amino acids than those in the artificial wetlands, urban streets, and municipal landfill. The characteristics of carbon metabolism revealed regional differences that were mainly caused by carboxylic acids. Specifically, urban streets, municipal landfills, and artificial wetlands had similar metabolic characteristics, and could be classified together. Additionally, coastal and drinking water source areas had different characteristics, and could be classified respectively. Environmental factors such as wind speed, temperature, and humidity may affect carbon utilization to a certain degree; however, the dominant factors will differ among environments. The results of canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) showed that wind speed and the carbon metabolism of the coastal area and drinking water source area were positively correlated, while they were negatively correlated with temperature and humidity. However, urban streets, municipal landfill, and artificial wetlands were positively correlated with temperature and humidity and negatively correlated with wind speed. The BIOLOG method could provide a large amount of multi-dimensional data, compare carbon metabolic characteristics of the microbial community between samplers, and reflect characteristics of the carbon metabolic diversity of airborne microbes objectively and generally, making it an ideal method for studying functional diversity of airborne microbes.