The object of the taxation . Although admission fees to a place of amusement and items sold therein are retail sales, . . . Instead, the admission fees are purely local transactions. It argues that this rendered its business as a transportation service. This is because transportation is not involved and because a business' basic purpose, and not its patrons' subjective interests, control.
Transportation necessarily involves moving people and things from one port to a different port.
Indeed, our world offers all kinds of mobile places of amusements which involve carrying people but which are not involved in the transportation business. Carousels, pony rides, riverboat rides, trail rides, miniature train rides, and the antique car ride at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City come to mind. Yet, no one could argue persuasively that these rides were transportation rather than amusement. The old craft will carry them into the sky much the same as it did when it was a celebrated part of TWA's fleet. When a carrier offers rides for fun, as opposed to offering them for the purpose of actually getting the rider to a particular place, then the carrier is providing amusement rides.