With the occurrence of epidemics worldwide and serious haze events in China, studies on airborne biological pollution have attracted considerable attention. The research approach for airborne microorganisms is constantly updated because of the rapid development of molecular biology techniques, and researchers are switching from biochemistry-based technologies to modern molecular biology-based technologies. In this paper, we reviewed the development processes of airborne microbial communities and analyzed their diversity on the basis of culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches, which mainly include culture-dependent technology, BIOLOG technology, biomarkers, gene fingerprinting techniques, nucleic acid hybridization, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, metagenomics of airborne microorganisms, and gene chip technology. In addition, the basic principles of these technologies have been presented in detail in this paper, and the advantages and disadvantages of various technologies have been compared to highlight their applications in the study of airborne microbial communities and their diversity. Finally, the prospects of airborne microbiology have been emphasized.