Objective To provide literature data support for improving the understanding of the influencing mechanisms of influenza virus airborne transmission and formulating scientific influenza prevention and control strategies. Methods Based on the Web of Science and CNKI databases, a total of 1,909 Chinese and English literature related to influenza virus airborne transmission published between January 1, 2016, and September 1, 2025, were retrieved. CiteSpace 6.4 software was used for co-occurrence analysis and clustering of keywords, and visual mapping was conducted to reveal the evolution of research hotspots and frontier directions. Results The study found that the influencing factors of influenza virus airborne transmission are mainly divided into three categories: pathogens, hosts, and the environment. Pathogen factors mainly include virus subtypes, structural stability, and gene mutations; host factors are mainly related to immune status and shedding behavior; environmental factors take temperature, humidity, and ventilation as key variables. CiteSpace clustering results indicate that the research focus is shifting from epidemiological characteristic analysis to multi-factor comprehensive modeling. Conclusion Over the past decade, research on influenza virus airborne transmission has shown a trend of interdisciplinary integration and quantification, but there are still deficiencies in the quantification of infection distance and the restoration of experimental environments. This study sorts out the knowledge structure of this field through literature visualization methods, providing data support and theoretical basis for the research on airborne transmission mechanisms and the prediction of future research hotspots.