The safety of dangerous goods transport by air is crucial to human and environment protection. This paper aims to identify the critical influence on dangerous goods’ safety performance in air transportation. Twenty risk factors are summarized and categorized by regulations and standards, government supervisor activities, operator activities and shipper activities. Several hypotheses are examined via structural equation modeling using a sample of online surveys in China. Results show that the operator and the government are the main influencers of safety performance in the air transport of dangerous goods. The total process safety is emphasized. The findings facilitate the prevention of accidents and unsafe incidents when transporting dangerous goods via air.