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Spirit Airlines was not built on luxury.

It was built on access.

Cheap flights. No frills. Low barriers. Fast decisions. A model for the person who said, “I don’t need champagne in the sky. I just need to get to Orlando without selling a kidney.”

For a while, it worked.

Spirit helped pressure the airline industry to lower fares. It gave budget-conscious travelers more choices. It made flying possible for people who may have otherwise stayed home.

But then the model got squeezed.

Spirit’s official restructuring site announced on May 2, 2026, that the airline had started an “orderly wind-down,” canceled all flights, and ended customer service after 34 years.

That did not happen just because Spirit was cheap.

It happened because cheap left very little room for error.

Spirit had already struggled after COVID, lost more than $2.5 billion since 2020, filed for Chapter 11 in November 2024, then sought bankruptcy protection again in August 2025. A blocked JetBlue merger also removed one possible escape hatch. The Department of Justice noted that JetBlue abandoned its $3.8 billion acquisition after a federal court blocked it on antitrust grounds.

Then came the ugly part.

Rising costs. Debt. Changing consumer preferences. Fuel shocks. A customer base trained to shop by price. A brand known more for being cheap than being trusted.

Reuters reported that Spirit’s demand weakened after the pandemic as more passengers shifted toward comfort and experience-based travel, leaving ultra-low-cost carriers struggling to adapt.

That is the real lesson.

Low price can open the door. But low price cannot be the whole house.

And that brings us to chiropractic.

Is The Joint Chiropractic the Spirit Airlines of Chiropractic?

The Joint Chiropractic has built a very similar kind of disruption story.

No appointments. No insurance. Retail locations. Affordable adjustments. Simple membership plans. Convenience over complexity.

Their own 2025 10-K says the company uses a private-pay, non-insurance, cash-based model and prices its services below most competitors and below most insurance co-pay levels.

That is a big deal.

The Joint did something many traditional chiropractic offices struggled to do: make chiropractic feel easy to buy.

No long consultation process. No confusing insurance conversation. No “let me check your benefits.” No 47-step onboarding ritual.

Walk in. Get adjusted. Pay less. Keep moving.

From a consumer access standpoint, that is powerful.

The company reported 14.4 million patient visits in 2025, $532.4 million in system-wide sales, and 960 clinics as of December 31, 2025.

So no, The Joint is not Spirit Airlines in the sense of “about to collapse tomorrow.”

In fact, The Joint is healthier than that comparison would suggest. It reported 2025 full-year revenue of $54.9 million, net income of $2.9 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $13.0 million.

But the warning is still there.

Because The Joint is playing the same dangerous game every low-cost disruptor eventually plays:

Can you stay cheap and still be valuable?

The Cheap Trap

According to The Joint’s 2025 filing, the average cash-based chiropractic manipulation fee in the U.S. was about $76, while The Joint’s average fee was about $37 — roughly 51% lower. Their membership visits can run as low as $17 to $25 per adjustment.

That makes sense as an access strategy.

But it creates a chiropractic perception problem.

Because when consumers are trained to see chiropractic as a quick, cheap, convenient adjustment, they may stop seeing it as clinical care.

They may stop understanding the exam.

They may stop understanding corrective care.

They may stop understanding outcomes.

They may stop understanding why one office charges $49 and another charges $4,900.

And when that happens, the entire profession gets dragged toward commodity pricing.

That is the Spirit problem.

Spirit did not just sell flights.

It trained people to ask, “What is the cheapest way to get there?”

The Joint does not just sell adjustments.

It risks training people to ask, “What is the cheapest way to get cracked?”

That is a very different conversation than:

“Who can actually help me get better?”

Where The Joint Is Stronger Than Spirit

To be fair, The Joint has advantages Spirit did not.

Spirit had massive exposure to fuel costs, aircraft leases, debt, labor complexity, and the brutal economics of running an airline.

The Joint’s model is more asset-light, especially as it shifts toward a pure-play franchisor model. Its 2025 report says it is strategically divesting company-owned or managed clinics and focusing on franchise growth.

That matters.

A franchise royalty model is not the same thing as operating a national airline.

The Joint also benefits from recurring visits, wellness memberships, convenience, and the fact that chiropractic can be habit-based.

But the pressure points are real.

The company itself lists labor shortages, difficulty recruiting chiropractors, wage increases, inflation, and reduced discretionary spending as risks that could negatively impact the business.

That is where the Spirit comparison gets interesting.

Because both models depend on volume.

Both models depend on operational efficiency.

Both models depend on convincing the customer that “simple and affordable” is enough.

And both models get stressed when costs go up but the brand is built around keeping prices low.

The Real Question for Chiropractors

The question is not:

“Will The Joint fail like Spirit?”

The better question is:

What happens to chiropractic when the biggest consumer-facing brand in the profession teaches the market that chiropractic should be cheap, fast, and frictionless?

That is where independent chiropractors need to wake up.

You do not beat The Joint by trying to be cheaper than The Joint.

That is how you end up in the Spirit Airlines death spiral.

You beat The Joint by becoming more trusted.

More specific.

More outcome-driven.

More relationship-based.

More clinically clear.

More locally known.

More proof-heavy.

The Joint owns convenience.

That does not mean they own results.

And for traditional chiropractors, that is the opening.

Cheap Gets Attention. Results Create Authority.

Spirit made flights accessible.

But over time, many customers associated Spirit with bare-bones service, add-on fees, and a lower-quality experience.

That is the risk of every low-price model.

The price gets remembered.

The value gets questioned.

For chiropractic, the answer is not to shame affordability. Affordable care matters. Access matters. Removing insurance friction matters.

But if chiropractic becomes only about cheaper adjustments, the profession loses the bigger story.

The bigger story is outcomes.

Can the patient sleep better?

Can they move better?

Can they work without pain?

Can they avoid surgery?

Can they get back to lifting, running, golfing, parenting, working, living?

Can they actually see measurable change?

That is the difference between being “the cheap option” and being “the obvious choice.”

The Bottom Line

The Joint Chiropractic is not necessarily headed the way of Spirit Airlines.

But the chiropractic profession could absolutely create its own Spirit Airlines problem if it lets low price become the dominant consumer message.

Because once the public believes chiropractic is just a quick, cheap adjustment, it becomes harder for serious doctors to explain exams, imaging, care plans, corrective work, neurological outcomes, functional improvement, and long-term value.

Spirit proved that low price can disrupt an industry.

It also proved that low price alone does not protect you when the market changes.

For chiropractors, the lesson is simple:

Do not race The Joint to the bottom.

Build the proof.

Show the outcomes.

Own the relationship.

Make the value visible before the patient ever asks, “How much?”

Because the future of chiropractic should not be built around being the cheapest seat on the plane.

It should be built around getting people where they actually want to go.