diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-pyarrow/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-pyarrow/package.py
index e0333a3cf4..8e4514b8f3 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-pyarrow/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-pyarrow/package.py
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ class PyPyarrow(PythonPackage, CudaPackage):
     version('0.9.0', sha256='7db8ce2f0eff5a00d6da918ce9f9cfec265e13f8a119b4adb1595e5b19fd6242')
 
     variant('parquet', default=False, description="Build with Parquet support")
+    variant('orc', default=False, description='Build with orc support')
 
     depends_on('cmake@3.0.0:', type='build')
     depends_on('pkgconfig', type='build')
@@ -44,6 +45,7 @@ class PyPyarrow(PythonPackage, CudaPackage):
         depends_on('arrow+python' + v, when=v)
         depends_on('arrow+parquet+python' + v, when='+parquet' + v)
         depends_on('arrow+cuda' + v, when='+cuda' + v)
+        depends_on('arrow+orc' + v, when='+orc' + v)
 
     phases = ['build_ext', 'install']
 
@@ -51,4 +53,8 @@ def build_ext_args(self, spec, prefix):
         args = []
         if spec.satisfies('+parquet'):
             args.append('--with-parquet')
+        if spec.satisfies('+cuda'):
+            args.append('--with-cuda')
+        if spec.satisfies('+orc'):
+            args.append('--with-orc')
         return args