diff --git a/python-sdk/src/astro/custom_backend/serializer.py b/python-sdk/src/astro/custom_backend/serializer.py
index f7338a3d7..69e94f334 100644
--- a/python-sdk/src/astro/custom_backend/serializer.py
+++ b/python-sdk/src/astro/custom_backend/serializer.py
@@ -5,21 +5,27 @@
 from json import JSONDecodeError
 from typing import Any
 
-import airflow
 import numpy as np
 import pandas
+import sqlalchemy
+from packaging import version
 
-if airflow.__version__ >= "2.3":
+try:
     from sqlalchemy.engine.row import LegacyRow as SQLAlcRow
-else:
+except ImportError:
     from sqlalchemy.engine.result import RowProxy as SQLAlcRow
 
+
 from astro.files import File
 from astro.table import Table, TempTable
 
 log = logging.getLogger("astro.utils.serializer")
 
 
+def is_newer_sqlalchemy():
+    return version(sqlalchemy.__version__) >= version.parse("1.4.0")
+
+
 def serialize(obj: Table | File | Any) -> dict | Any:  # noqa
     """
     Serialize astro SDK objects (tables, files and dataframes) into json safe dictionary
@@ -52,7 +58,7 @@ def serialize(obj: Table | File | Any) -> dict | Any:  # noqa
             "key_map": obj._keymap,  # skipcq PYL-W021
             "key_style": obj._key_style,  # skipcq PYL-W021
         }
-        if airflow.__version__ >= "2.3":
+        if is_newer_sqlalchemy():
             serialized_obj["data"] = obj._data  # skipcq PYL-W021
         return serialized_obj
 
@@ -90,7 +96,7 @@ def deserialize(obj: dict | str | list) -> Table | File | Any:  # noqa
             log.debug("Found file dictionary %s, will attempt to deserialize", obj)
             return _deserialize_file(obj)
         elif obj["class"] == "SQLAlcRow":
-            if airflow.__version__ >= "2.3":
+            if is_newer_sqlalchemy():
                 return SQLAlcRow(None, None, obj["key_map"], obj["key_style"], obj["data"])
             else:
                 return SQLAlcRow(None, None, obj["key_map"], obj["key_style"])