Airport economic demonstration zones are becoming the growth poles that drive regional high-quality development. Airport economic zones at different stages of development have heterogeneous needs for industrial structure adjustment. Exploring differentiated and coordinated adjustment strategies is of great significance for promoting airport economic development. Based on the life cycle theory, the development stages of national airport economic zones were divided, and the PVAR model and the coupling coordination degree model were constructed to explore the interaction and coordination degree between industrial structure adjustment and airport economic development. The results show that 8 of the national airport economic zones are in the initial stage, 9 are in the development stage, and 1 is in the mature stage. In the initial stage and mature stage, the upgrading and rationalization of industrial structure promote and hinder the high-quality development of airport economy respectively, but such promoting and hindering effects will gradually weaken in the long run, and the hindering effect may turn to promoting effect in the long run. For the mature airport economic zone, the upgrading of industrial structure will slowly promote the development in the long run. The rationalization of industrial structure will play a great role in promoting. The coupling coordination degree between industrial structure and airport economic development is generally increasing with the development of airport economy, and Nanning, Guiyang and Qingdao airport economic zones are on the verge of imbalance. In view of this, the airport economic zone should pay attention to the rationalization of industrial structure and selectively upgrade the industrial structure in the initial period and the development period, and can focus on the upgrading of industrial structure in the mature period.