It is an object of the present invention to provide an operation control method of an air-conditioning apparatus and an air-conditioning apparatus that prevent a plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses from simultaneously restarting upon their automatic recovery after a recovery of power and from stopping again due to a voltage drop. The air-conditioning apparatus of the present invention is provided with an automatic recovery control circuit (21) for deciding a delay time until a restart based on set data for deciding operation works of the air-conditioning apparatus or randomly, thereby to restart the air-conditioning apparatus with the decided delay time.