Hawaii is no longer virgin territory for Virgin America.

The San Francisco-based carrier, which is closely tied to Virgin Group founder and billionaire Sir Richard Branson, announced Tuesday that it will add Los Angeles as a second mainland destination. The airline will begin daily flights from Los Angeles International Airport to Honolulu on May 5 and from Los Angeles to Kahului on June 14.

Known for its colorful interior lighting and leather seats, Virgin America made its debut in Hawaii to great fanfare on Nov. 2 with daily service between San Francisco and Honolulu and then on Dec. 3 added a daily flight between San Francisco and Kahului.

Branson, whose Virgin Group is a minority investor in the airline, said in November the airline was planning to launch Hawaii service early this year from Los Angeles. But Branson offered no details at the time.

Gov. David Ige, who was at Honolulu Airport to welcome Virgin America — with Branson aboard — in November, said he was pleased to see the airline already expanding service to the state.

“Virgin America is providing more airline choice and competition to our great state, and we could not be more pleased that they are already adding more routes to the Hawaiian Islands from Los Angeles — our largest originating travel market,” Ige said in a statement. “We look forward to Virgin America’s continued growth and success in serving travelers visiting the islands.”

Virgin America, founded in 2007, operates its Hawaii routes with 149-seat Airbus A320 aircraft. It announced the Los Angeles service to Hawaii with a one-day, one-way fare of $169 that was good only until 7:59 p.m. Hawaii time Tuesday. Without the special price, fares range up to $442 one way.

“The addition of more seats flying direct between Los Angeles and Honolulu and Los Angeles and Kahului will not only expand the availability to more islands, but provide our visitors with another excellent airline option,” said George Szigeti, president and CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority. “We are thrilled to have this easy access for both visitors and residents flying between the West Coast and Hawaii.”

The additional Virgin America flights come at a good time for the state’s visitor industry after a record 2015, which saw both visitor arrivals (8.6 million) and visitor spending ($15.2 billion) reach new highs for the fourth consecutive year.

This year the number of air seats available to the mainland is forecast to flatten out to just a 0.3 percent increase over 2015, according to the latest Hawaii Tourism Authority data, due to be released today. HTA is forecasting airlift to rise 4.2 percent in the first quarter, drop 1.2 percent in the second quarter, edge up 0.3 percent in the third quarter and then fall 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter.

Traffic will be even more subdued this year from Los Angeles, which brings in more seats to Hawaii (2.45 million forecast for 2016) than any other domestic or international market. HTA’s data, which don’t include Virgin America’s new announcement, forecasts air seats from L.A. will be down 3.5 percent this year.

“Virgin America is adding 4,470 seats roughly to a 100,000-seat-per-month Los Angeles-Honolulu market,” said financial adviser John Reardon of Western International Securities Inc. of Pasadena, Calif. “I don’t think that is such a big deal (to competition), although any new capacity is unwelcomed by the incumbents. The traffic to Maui in June is more significant. Virgin America has a pretty loyal following and provides a great product. However, Hawaiian Airlines also has a loyal following and a first-rate product, and nobody knows more about the Hawaiian market — it is their raison d’etre.”

Hawaiian Airlines spokeswoman Alison Croyle said the company will put its product up against anyone.

“Hawaiian already competes with the world’s largest airlines between Los Angeles and Hawaii,” Croyle said. “We have tremendous confidence that our product, operational performance, competitive fares and the outstanding hospitality of our front-line employees positions us well to compete with anyone.”

Reardon said what is more significant than Virgin America adding some capacity to Hawaii is that United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines have been encountering pricing pressures brought on, in large part, by ultralow-cost carriers like Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines.

“The recent record earnings reported by Hawaiian and the increase in Hawaiian’s stock price may make some of the larger carriers think that they should do more flying to the islands,” Reardon said.

Virgin America President and CEO David Cush said passengers’ reception to the airline’s start of Hawaii service last year from San Francisco has been encouraging.

“Since we launched our Hawaii service last year, we’ve seen firsthand why it is one of the most popular leisure destinations among West Coast travelers,” Cush said. “The guest response to our new routes has been extremely positive, which is why we are so pleased to announce that we are expanding our nonstop service to the Los Angeles market.”