Meno – I haven’t been following this whole thing at all, but I could theoretically see a situation of someone “needing a coffee.”. Maybe she is a mother travelling with young kids and she will not be able to deal with them w/o her coffee. Maybe he/she has a car parked by the airport and will have to be able to drive as soon as he gets off the plane. Maybe he/she is extremely addicted to coffee and really can’t manage w/o it.
In terms of “Would the same apply if “I needed a hamburger”…”, you could ask the same question about the guy driving. I understand that you feel it’s pikuach nefesh because he may fall asleep at the wheel, but what if he is really hungry and may get dizzy if he doesn’t eat? Would you say it would be okay for him to eat the hamburger? No, you would say that he should either try to manage or call a taxi or call someone to pick him up, etc.
Truthfully, I think the guy in the car may have more options than the guy on the plane. For one thing, he had the option of bringing an energy drink with him in the car which the guy on the plane may not have had.
The pikuach nefesh argument sounds a bit shvach to me altogether and clearly only applies since the coffee is not mamash assur altogether, and just shouldn’t be drunk l’chatchila (at least that’s how it sounds to me, if it is being allowed in certain circumstances).