Aviation carbon emissions not only affect air quality but also cause greenhouse effect. China is in the critical period of transforming from a big country to a strong country in civil aviation. Improving the efficiency of aviation carbon emission is an effective means of aviation carbon emission reduction. This paper uses the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology model (STIRPAT) to analyze the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of total aviation carbon emissions in China from 2004 to 2019, to explore the spatial differences and correlation of aviation carbon emissions at different scales; The ultra-efficiency Slack Based Measure model (SBM) based on non-expected output and Standard Deviation Ellipse analysis (SDE) were used to analyze the spatial and temporal distribution and pattern evolution process of the aviation carbon emission efficiency in China, to calculate their differences in various provinces, and give effective aviation carbon reduction strategy. The research found that China's total aviation carbon emissions continued to grow from 2004 to 2019. Both of the growth rate and the intensity of aviation carbon emission showed a decreasing trend. The overall distribution of aviation carbon emissions in the four economic zones shows a pattern of "eastern China is the largest, northern China is the smallest, and western China is larger than central China". The eastern area is still the main region of aviation carbon emissions in China. The high-value regions of aviation carbon emissions are relatively scattered, and no continuous high-value regions have been formed among provinces. From 2004 to 2019, China's aviation carbon emission efficiency generally showed a "M" shaped fluctuation upward trend. Aviation carbon emission efficiency of different provinces has been improved to various levels, but mainly in low efficiency areas and middle efficiency areas. The difference of aviation carbon emission efficiency among provinces and regions has experienced a process of gradually decreasing to gradually increasing. However, the spatial distribution pattern of aviation carbon emission efficiency is dominated by south to north direction. From the national, regional, and provincial scale to study the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of aviation carbon emission and its efficiency, we can identify the regional aviation carbon emissions characteristics, and effectively explore the differential development strategies of regional aviation carbon emission reduction. The improvement of aviation carbon emission efficiency has theoretical guiding significance for improving the sustainable development of China's civil aviation industry, promoting the green, low-carbon and efficient development of civil aviation economy, and promoting the differentiated emission reduction process of various regions.