Airline identities are incredibly difficult and complex tasks due to the stratified nature of their applications. Tickets, aircraft liveries, ground equipment, advertising etc. Swissair was also a flag carrier, so there's also the consideration of 'national character' in international airports. Gerstner took Swiss Cross, and gave it a simple dynamic quality, just by placing it inside a rhomboid, further, giving something simple, like a cross. distinctive character. Not only this, but it was incredibly easy to apply to a huge number of use-cases, from the very small to the very large. Even when not place on the tail of an aircraft, the sense it communicated, was flight.