I play air quite often in team games, although, I am far from great at it. I don't actually want to give away some of my tricks, but for the sake of the game I will.
I almost always start 4-5 swifts to scout. I put my factory on production priority for the first 2 and then turn it off and scout the enemy base with those 2 as soon as they are both up. I put them on retreat when (yellow) hp so they afterburner away when they get low. The first one will tank some damage and then afterburner back to base while the 2nd continues on scouting.
I queue a scouting route using the shift key so I do not have to micro them while they are scouting. If I see a rushed Likho, then I rush 10-15 swifts (factory priority back on) and send then in to kill it - again using the shift key to set a route that avoids scouted AAA. During the Likho attack, I turn off the retreat function on the swifts as I want the swifts to stay and ensure the Likho dies. Once it dies, I queue in an escape route for the remaining swifts to avoid AAA on the return trip. Remember a Likho costs 2800 metal so even if you lose 18 swifts (150 metal ea.) killing one, you have still more than made cost. Late game, it might not be worth trading the swifts because some players will just revive the downed Likho with Athenas from the strider factory.
I also build at least one airpad - even if I just build swifts - along with 2 caretakers far enough away from my factory that they focus on repairing landed aircraft instead of assisting the factory.
If the enemy is rushing swifts, then after my commander finishes all the nearby mexes, I put the air factory priority back on and spam swifts to ensure I can fight for air superiority. I group the swifts under a control group (ctrl + #) plus using ctrl-z & ctrl + # to add new swifts to the group. While fighting for superiority I keep my swifts on (yellow) retreat to keep swifts from getting too hammered. This takes some micro because when the swifts retreat, they leave the control group and want to return to where they were last damaged and I have to corral them, keep them from going in solo, and return them to the control group. I use swifts because they are so much faster than raptors. I rarely use raptors, except as defense for a particular building. Swifts using area attack also help against raiders. Late game doing an afterburner swift scouting raid every 10 minutes or so is critical.
[This entire paragraph is the most important] If the enemy has no airplane factory, then I make ravens. I can usually do a factory or commander snipe once I have 6-7 ravens. I again queue in their attack route + their attack + their retreat route using shift and force fire so THE ENTIRE ATTACK RUN + ATTACK + RETREAT IS AUTOMATED, although, I can re-route them if I see the need. This keeps the ravens from flying over spotted AAA both while on the attack run and the retreat. Because retreating straight over enemy lines is so costly, it is important to rarely switch targets as once the retreat route is deleted, the ravens want to return in a straight line to reload and it's micro intensive to corral them and re-route them away from AAA after they attack, especially if I sent too many and the target dies before they all attack. This also sometimes works on late game economy buildings. One other note on factory sniping; target the rear of the factory so the ravens hit the factory and not any unit in production - the unit will die with the factory. Most factories have 4k hp, but some have more so ensure you bring enough ravens (800 damage ea.) so that even if you lose 1-2 to AAA or enemy air, you still have enough to kill the factory. Also consider any nearby caretakers that will repair the factory during your attack run.
With the few swifts I have against no air factory I will sometimes snipe at light units being careful to retreat them before they cross into area without radar coverage. Sometimes you can land the swifts to do this. The green wing icon is for landing when idle.
Commander sniping is similar, but you have to account for the commander's HP. Also, the recon commander can jump and make ravens job much harder. I will often not even bother to try a to kill a recon commander because it is so hard for ravens to do.
Before AAA density becomes to great, ravens are wonderful. You can also use them against raiders, but some raiders can do significant damage to ravens and a unit with a slow is very painful for ravens. I use area attack with ravens against massed units with low AAA support. They can decimate many armies that advance beyond AAA cover.
Avoid:
1. Shieldbots: felons (1-shot ravens), racketeers (disarms ravens so they will circle without attacking)
2. Jumpbots: juggernauts (they will pull ravens), puppies (can 2-shot ravens), moderators (slow + high damage), black hole launchers can stun ravens too, but you can time it to kill them.
3. Cloakbots: phantom snipers (1 shot ravens), knights (stun ravens), scythes can hit ravens when they dive so massed scythes are dangerous in numbers,
4. Roverbots: dominatrixs (they will capture ravens), massed fencers will kill ravens,
5. Tankbots: orges (massive short-range AAA), grouped blitzes (stun ravens), cyclops - slows 1 raven ea. so kill it or you'll lose a raven or 2,
6. Ampbots: scallops have strong short range AAA so care attacking them, bolos slow 1 raven ea, but do lose to ravens
7. Hoverbots: lances are risky, but if you time it after they fire then you can destroy them without loss,
8. Spiderbots: grouped venom (stun ravens)
9. Any dedicated AAA units will cause pain, but particularly the hoverbot flail, ampbot angular, roverbot crasher, due to their range and damage. The crasher is fast so that can be a problem. The tankbot copperhead has big AOE so it's strong against massed ravens. The jumpbot archangel is a pain due to its high hp.
Likhos (a/k/a Wyvern) is great against massed units and 2 can usually snipe a commander or factory. Again you have to pay attention to the target's hp and nearby repair units & shields when using force fire. If your enemy rushes Likhos (and you fail to scout and kill it with swifts), you can rush an artemis AAA turret to shut them down - 1 costs less than 1 likho and will 2-shot a likho. Likhos work well against shield balls and strong units - even against underwater units using force fire.
Phoenixes are good against massed light units, but not against raiders in your base because phoenixes will damage your base also. I use them against flea or puppy spam. They also work well against a vulnerable wind farm.
Thunderbirds are niche and require careful timing combined with other units to be useful. You can gift them to teammates so the coordination isn't required.
Owls are great for radar + radar jamming + sonar coverage (less area than line-of-sight). Mid-game I start them. I do not use them to scout as some do because they are so slow. I try to cover the front-lines and any areas vulnerable to a flanking attack. I put them on instant retreat as soon as they take damage so I don't micro them. They will go repair and then return to the same spot. If I see they are too far forward I will move them.
Once AAA density becomes too great, I switch to economy, AAA support, anti-nukes, super weapons, and swift afterburner scouting.
