With the rapid development of China civil aviation industry, the position of hub airports is constantly improving in civil aviation. However, the classification of hub airports is undefined, strategy planning is insufficient, homogenization of functional orientation is serious, as a result, competition among airports is fierce. Therefore, hub airports are classified according to the collaborative development, to achieve differentiated and hierarchical development of various airports. This paper takes the 40 hub airports mentioned in the «National Civil Airport Layout Plan » (2017) as research objects, and the classification problem is solved by methods of three-stage and super-efficiency DEA, clustering analysis and BP neural network. The gradient classification of hub airports is carried out, and the collaborative development strategy based on functional orientation is proposed to promote the sustainable development of aviation industry.