An air wave and a sound wave are actually the same thing. The term "air wave" is often used interchangeably with "sound wave" to emphasize that sound requires a medium like air to propagate.
Sound waves are mechanical waves that result from the vibration or disturbance of particles in a medium. When an object vibrates, such as a guitar string or a vocal cord, it creates compressions and rarefactions in the surrounding medium. These regions of high and low pressure propagate as a wave through the medium, carrying the energy of the sound.
In the case of sound waves traveling through air, they are often referred to as air waves. This emphasizes that the medium through which the sound wave is propagating is air. However, sound waves can also travel through other mediums like liquids and solids, and they would be referred to as water waves or solid waves, respectively, depending on the medium involved.
So, to summarize, an air wave and a sound wave are essentially the same thing—the term "air wave" simply highlights that the sound wave is propagating through air as its medium.