iPod to MacBook Air

Depends on what files you are trying to transfer.

Music would need to be extracted from the iPod, and even iTunes cannot do this.

You can set the iPod to Disk Mode,and access the internal hard drive through the Finder to get the music and any other files out of the iPod.

click here ➜ How to use disk mode on your iPod - Apple Support

and click here ➜ Recover media from an iPod - Apple Community

if you do not have iTunes try finder of music it should work for most iPods

if you do have iTunes then you should be able to just drag music to iTunes then plugging usb to the iPod

check the back if it has the up logo that means it was made for windows if you have a windows pc you can download iTunes to the computer the older iTunes versions for windows should work for windows xp and up

if you do not have a windows pc you can use boot camp to deul boot windows with macOS on the MacBook Air but that may be a bit much for an old ipod

you can ask me for help on deal booting if you are interested

You said it was an iPod Classic. All iPod Classics have disk mode.