diff --git a/dev/release/verify-apt.sh b/dev/release/verify-apt.sh
index fc2dbb46fdd..cc0b9a2bd77 100755
--- a/dev/release/verify-apt.sh
+++ b/dev/release/verify-apt.sh
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ fi
 
 have_flight=yes
 have_plasma=yes
+workaround_missing_packages=()
 case "${distribution}-${code_name}" in
   debian-buster)
     sed \
@@ -59,6 +60,7 @@ case "${distribution}-${code_name}" in
     ;;
   ubuntu-xenial)
     have_flight=no
+    workaround_missing_packages+=(libprotobuf-dev)
     ;;
 esac
 if [ "$(arch)" = "aarch64" ]; then
@@ -90,7 +92,8 @@ apt install -y -V libarrow-glib-dev=${deb_version}
 apt install -y -V \
   cmake \
   g++ \
-  git
+  git \
+  ${workaround_missing_packages[@]}
 mkdir -p build
 cp -a /arrow/cpp/examples/minimal_build build
 pushd build/minimal_build
diff --git a/dev/tasks/linux-packages/apache-arrow/debian.ubuntu-xenial/control b/dev/tasks/linux-packages/apache-arrow/debian.ubuntu-xenial/control
index c9734f9c276..6ae5d15a310 100644
--- a/dev/tasks/linux-packages/apache-arrow/debian.ubuntu-xenial/control
+++ b/dev/tasks/linux-packages/apache-arrow/debian.ubuntu-xenial/control
@@ -99,6 +99,7 @@ Depends:
   libbrotli-dev,
   libbz2-dev,
   liblz4-dev,
+  libprotobuf-dev,
   libre2-dev,
   libsnappy-dev,
   libssl-dev,