“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.”
These are all just “sha’as ha’dchak” cases that just happen to involve travelling. I don’t see anything inherent in travelling that should warrant a blanket heter for someone who is travelling.
Truth is, if you just read the footnote on the Star-K article linked above, it sounds like the mere fact that you have no other option (not that you “need a coffee”) is enough to be lenient. I would like to see what the Noda B’Yehuda actually said. I know there are people here who are good at finding stuff. Get on that