I think the founder was fooling himself: being bored waiting for an airplane is a problem, but an app that connects you to people closeby isn't gonna work.
I've had some random conversations with people in airports before, it wasn't a particularly life changing experience. I think there is probably an opportunity to provide services for people who are out of town on business better - basically at the moment the social interactions serviced by having a few beers at the hotel bar. I think grubwithus does this pretty well, but there might be other models.