diff --git a/app/Models/Aircraft.php b/app/Models/Aircraft.php
index 29c35893..2049dd9d 100644
--- a/app/Models/Aircraft.php
+++ b/app/Models/Aircraft.php
@@ -44,7 +44,6 @@ class Aircraft extends Model
     protected $casts = [
         'subfleet_id' => 'integer',
         'zfw'         => 'float',
-        'status'      => 'integer',
         'state'       => 'integer',
     ];
 
diff --git a/app/Services/ImportService.php b/app/Services/ImportService.php
index ccd61e15..50b7c876 100644
--- a/app/Services/ImportService.php
+++ b/app/Services/ImportService.php
@@ -108,7 +108,12 @@ class ImportService extends Service
 
             // turn it into a collection and run some filtering
             $row = collect($row)->map(function ($val, $index) {
-                return trim($val);
+                $val = trim($val);
+                if($val === '') {
+                    return null;
+                }
+
+                return $val;
             })->toArray();
 
             # Try to validate
diff --git a/tests/ImporterTest.php b/tests/ImporterTest.php
index 97f9dccb..a49da3ec 100644
--- a/tests/ImporterTest.php
+++ b/tests/ImporterTest.php
@@ -555,6 +555,8 @@ class ImporterTest extends TestCase
         $this->assertEquals($subfleet->id, $aircraft->id);
         $this->assertEquals('A320-211', $aircraft->name);
         $this->assertEquals('N309US', $aircraft->registration);
+        $this->assertEquals('A', $aircraft->status);
+        $this->assertEquals(null, $aircraft->zfw);
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/tests/data/aircraft.csv b/tests/data/aircraft.csv
index b1f0f1ac..69c68b75 100644
--- a/tests/data/aircraft.csv
+++ b/tests/data/aircraft.csv
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-subfleet,iata, icao, name,registration,hex_code,status
-A32X,A320,320,A320-211,N309US,,
+subfleet,iata, icao, name,registration,hex_code,zfw,status
+A32X,A320,320,A320-211,N309US,,,A
 74X,747 400, ,,