Brazil has three ideal conditions for the development of air transport: large territorial extension, large population and huge domestic demand. Currently, only Brazil, China and United States of America present Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over US$ 1 trillion, territorial area over 5 million squared kilometers and population over 200 million inhabitants. Despite this potential, average Brazilian fly as little as 0.5 time a year, which is considered low compared to the same number in the US (2.5) and China (1.5). Therefore, there is an enormous potential for air transport in Brazil, especially in terms of regional aviation. In the fifties about 350 municipalities were covered by commercial aviation routes. Currently, that number do not reach 130 in a country with 8,5 million squared kilometers and 5,500 municipalities, despite efforts of Federal Government such as the release of the Regional Air Transport Integrated System in the seventies and the Regional Aviation Development Program in 2015. In this contradictory context, this paper aims to identify the socioeconomic and operational factors that cause the variation of the number of airports served by regular commercial aviation. It will be used a data-panel regression model based on secondary information collected from National Civil Aviation Agency and other agencies to explain the number of airports as the dependent variable, for every Federal state from 2005 to 2021. It is expected that this paper helps Government decision-makers to design public policies for the development of regional aviation in Brazil.