Boeing reported its 2008 orders on January 8 and the headlines screamed that they were less than half 2007’s record number.

Well, no kidding. Nobody, including Boeing, aerospace analysts and pontificators such as ourselves, expected that Boeing would come anywhere near 2007’s level.

The 668 orders–while falling short of Airbus’ total that should be announced next week–is still nothing to sneeze at. In fact, it’s pretty darn good.

If you go back to 1988, 21 years, 2008 ranks as Boeing’s seventh best year for orders. If you go back to 1998, 11 years, 2008 ranks fourth.

Boeing’s orders were depressed by the fall-off in the 787’s recent years because of the delays and the fact that no delivery position is available until 2017 to 2020.

We think Boeing had a pretty good year nonetheless. See the statistical table after the jump.