diff --git a/tools/ci/travis-install.sh b/tools/ci/travis-install.sh
index 2342cdadbc..67c8a4d96d 100755
--- a/tools/ci/travis-install.sh
+++ b/tools/ci/travis-install.sh
@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@ set -ex
 # Install NJOY 2016
 ./tools/ci/travis-install-njoy.sh
 
+# Upgrade pip before doing anything else
+pip install --upgrade pip
+
 # Running OpenMC's setup.py requires numpy/cython already. NumPy float
 # formatting changed in version 1.14, so stick with a lower version until we can
 # handle it in our test suite