at the very end of the article it states "All these alternatives to dropdown menus don't mean you should never use them in a user interface design. Well-designed forms make use of the most appropriate input control for each question they ask". The from/to airport, at least, is a candidate for dropdown. The point of the article is that it's best not to default to "what works", and approach "what's works best" or what's most appropriate for the data to be input.