A theoretical approach is derived to study interaction of linear water waves with an air bubble curtain used as a pneumatic breakwater. Modelling of wave transmission through an aerial barrier is a complex task due to a need to cover processes associated with wave-current interaction, effects of two-phase flows, wave damping, etc.. An initial boundary-value problem is solved by applying an efficient eigenfunction expansion method and a time-stepping procedure. The derived semi-analytical solution is used to study the effect of basic parameters of the model on wave dissipative properties of the pneumatic breakwater. Results show that wave damping by the breakwater is mainly affected by an air flow rate. The increased air discharge results in higher velocities of ascending bubbles and increases aerial barrier width. This leads to a substantial reduction of transmitted wave heights, especially for waves of intermediate length and short waves. In order to verify the applicability of the presented theoretical approach, laboratory experiments are conducted in a wave flume for different wave regimes and pneumatic breakwater characteristics. The analysis of a wave trans- mission coefficient calculated numerically and measured in the laboratory confirms that the derived model can be used for a certain range of wave conditions.