diff --git a/.github/workflows/python-release.yml b/.github/workflows/python-release.yml
index 52f523da93..2d51aa3d17 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/python-release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/python-release.yml
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ jobs:
           CIBW_ARCHS: "auto64"
           CIBW_PROJECT_REQUIRES_PYTHON: ">=3.8,<3.12"
           CIBW_TEST_REQUIRES: "pytest==7.4.2 moto==4.2.2"
-          CIBW_TEST_EXTRAS: "s3fs,glue,pyarrow"
+          CIBW_TEST_EXTRAS: "s3fs,glue"
           CIBW_TEST_COMMAND: "pytest {project}/tests/avro/test_decoder.py"
           # There is an upstream issue with installing on MacOSX
           # https://github.com/pypa/cibuildwheel/issues/1603
diff --git a/tests/conftest.py b/tests/conftest.py
index 86c7f1cd33..063c0646fd 100644
--- a/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/conftest.py
@@ -44,7 +44,6 @@
 from urllib.parse import urlparse
 
 import boto3
-import pyarrow as pa
 import pytest
 from moto import mock_dynamodb, mock_glue
 
@@ -85,6 +84,7 @@
 from pyiceberg.utils.datetime import datetime_to_millis
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    import pyarrow as pa
     from moto.server import ThreadedMotoServer  # type: ignore
 
     from pyiceberg.io.pyarrow import PyArrowFile, PyArrowFileIO
@@ -267,7 +267,9 @@ def table_schema_nested_with_struct_key_map() -> Schema:
 
 
 @pytest.fixture(scope="session")
-def pyarrow_schema_simple_without_ids() -> pa.Schema:
+def pyarrow_schema_simple_without_ids() -> "pa.Schema":
+    import pyarrow as pa
+
     return pa.schema([
         pa.field('foo', pa.string(), nullable=True),
         pa.field('bar', pa.int32(), nullable=False),
@@ -276,7 +278,9 @@ def pyarrow_schema_simple_without_ids() -> pa.Schema:
 
 
 @pytest.fixture(scope="session")
-def pyarrow_schema_nested_without_ids() -> pa.Schema:
+def pyarrow_schema_nested_without_ids() -> "pa.Schema":
+    import pyarrow as pa
+
     return pa.schema([
         pa.field('foo', pa.string(), nullable=False),
         pa.field('bar', pa.int32(), nullable=False),