WASHINGTON — United Airlines said Saturday it will drop its money-losing hub in Cleveland, slashing its daily flights and eliminating 470 jobs.

The company’s CEO Jeff Smisek told employees in a letter that the airline will no longer use Cleveland to connect fliers coming from other airports around the country. As a result, United’s daily departures from the city will fall from 199 currently to 72 by June.

“Our hub in Cleveland hasn’t been profitable for over a decade, and has generated tens of millions of dollars of annual losses in recent years,” Smisek said. “We simply cannot continue to bear these losses.”

United said in November that it aims to cut $2 billion in annual costs in the coming year by shifting flights, making workers more productive, and improving its maintenance procedures.

Similar cutbacks have affected many other small hubs in cities such as Memphis, Cincinnati and Salt Lake City amid a wave of airline mergers over the last five years.

Cleveland was a hub for Continental when it merged with United in 2010.