diff --git a/.github/workflows/doc-build.yaml b/.github/workflows/doc-build.yaml
index 699213cb2..5b8583c87 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/doc-build.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/doc-build.yaml
@@ -85,12 +85,6 @@ jobs:
           set -eux
           sudo apt-get install -y pandoc
           pip install -r docs/requirements.txt
-      - name: Start Airflow
-        run: |
-          # start airflow in background
-          airflow standalone &
-          # wait 5 seconds for airflow to start
-          sleep 5
       - name: Build
         run: |
           set -ex
diff --git a/docs/requirements.txt b/docs/requirements.txt
index c4da9544b..9385d9f5a 100644
--- a/docs/requirements.txt
+++ b/docs/requirements.txt
@@ -10,4 +10,3 @@ jupytext
 ipython_genutils
 # https://github.com/jupyter/nbconvert/issues/1736
 jinja2>=3.1.4
-apache-airflow==2.10.5